HIV/AIDS in Taiwan
To prevent the disease from spreading to general population rapidly, the CDC announced the "Harm Reduction Pilot Projects for IDUs".
[1] Taiwan is entering a new and dangerous phase of its HIV-1/AIDS epidemic, which by far accounts for the majority of its total number of HIV infection cases.
The current estimated number of HIV-1/AIDS cases in Taiwan is about 30,000, which suggests that the infection rate there could be greater than that in China: 30,000 per 23 million (1/767) compared with 650,000 per 1.3 billion (1/2000).
[5] A risk-factor analysis of reported cases showed that the proportion of intravenous drug users infected with HIV-1 increased from 1.7% (13/772) in 2002, to 8.1% (70/862) in 2003, to 41.3% (628/1520) in 2004, to 72.4% (2461/3399) in 2005, and dropped to 68.6% (2017/2974) in 2006.
The circulating recombinant form might have followed a separate drug-trafficking route to Taiwan from Yunnan via southeast China, Guangxi, and Hong Kong.
[8] Even though the Hong Kong authorities identified three cases of CRF07_BC infection in 2001, a serious outbreak in that city's population of intravenous drug users is believed to have been blocked by a methadone maintenance program.
In 2005, Alex Wodak, Gerry Stimson, and other harm-reduction experts were invited to Taiwan to share their experiences with government officials, medical field-workers, and public-health professionals.
This program has since been expanded nationally, and consists of 427 service sites for syringe exchange plus centres for methadone maintenance therapy.
Modern statistics indicate that heterosexual couples are at higher risk of contraction, in particular because they do not test as often as the homosexual population and are not targeted by country policy.
Taiwan's clinical spectrum of AIDS patients is similar to those reported in other developed countries, but significant differences have been noted in incidences of opportunistic infections.
For example, the incidence of tuberculosis in patients with advanced illness is high in Taiwan (24.6%) and the rate of endemic fungal (Penicillium marneffei) infections is increasing.
[17][18] On the positive side, the effort by the Taiwanese Government since April 1997, to distribute highly-active antiretroviral therapy for free[19] has resulted in dramatic decreases in morbidity and mortality from HIV-1 infection.
By June 2006, the screening rate had reached 97.4%, and 47 of 338,452 pregnant women (13.9 per 100 000) tested in Taiwan have been identified as having HIV-1 infections and have received antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
Since 1992, 16 non-governmental organizations registered or established in Taiwan have provided shelter, care, counselling, anonymous testing, and AIDS education.
However, most such organizations have their headquarters and facilities in northern Taiwan, and two-thirds of the country's intravenous drug users live in central and southern parts.
[citation needed] The original 1990 AIDS Prevention and Control Act did not explicitly protect the right to work and had no penalties for refusing employment to HIV-positive people.
Work discrimination in Taiwan became common, with even some state-run enterprises and government agencies requiring mandatory HIV blood tests.
[29] Identification of HIV/AIDS-positive foreigners usually occurs during mandatory blood test for teachers, government agencies workers and some state-run enterprises employees.
"[32] Foreigners infected by their Taiwanese spouse or from medical procedures conducted in Taiwan could appeal to be taken off of the black list, but only from abroad after being deported.
"[34] The revision came under criticism by patient groups and health experts as being only a small change that did not address the central issues of human rights and the lack of evidence showing a link between deportation and decreasing the HIV infection rate.
[34] Eventually, the revised Article 18 of the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act allowed deported foreign nationals to apply, once per quarter, for a short-term visa that lasted no longer than 14 days.
[35] On January 20, 2015, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment that repealed the requirement for foreign nationals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS to be subject to deportation.
