HIV/AIDS in Yunnan

[1] In 1989, the first indigenous cases were reported as an outbreak in 146 infected heroin users in Yunnan province, near China's southwest border.

Up until 1993, the disease had remained a problem in the border areas before mobile people (truck drivers, construction and migrant workers and travelers) brought the virus further into the country.

As a result, the epidemic has spread from high-risk groups (drug users, sex workers, unsafe blood donors) to the general population.

Officials estimate that the province has 80,000 infected people, most of them intravenous drug users who have spread the disease by sharing needles.

Unlike some other provinces, Yunnan has welcomed international nonprofit groups and support from Britain, Australia, and more recently the United States.

[4] Since 2001, the State Council of the People's Republic of China has officially advocated needle social marketing as an HIV prevention measure.

On the basis of the successes of the pilot, the programme was expanded in 2004, and plans are in place to open an additional 1500 methadone maintenance treatment clinics for about 300 000 heroin users by 2008.

[15] Other reports at this time were similarly pessimistic: from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC, USA), HIV/AIDS was referred to as China's time-bomb;[16] and from the American Enterprise Institute as the AIDS typhoon.