Author: Zhang Wei (Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University)
In 1985, an Argentine-American youth entered China as a tourist, and soon after was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital with fever and lung infection, he was diagnosed with AIDS, becoming the first case of AIDS reported by the mainland, and since then, the number of AIDS patients has continued to grow.
At present, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the mainland, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, have confirmed AIDS patients.
According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as of the end of September 2018, the mainland reported 850,000 cases of infection and 262,000 deaths.
One-third of those infected in China remain undetected. According to a joint assessment by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, by the end of 2018, the mainland estimated that there were about 1.25 million infected people and patients, and the infection rate of the whole population was 9 per 10,000, which is a shocking figure.
Please note that HIV infection does not immediately affect the human body, there is a process in which the virus replicates in the human body until the person becomes ill, so they are divided into two groups: "HIV-infected people" and "AIDS patients".
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
First, the distribution of the number of patients
There are 15 provinces with more than 10,000 live cases, including 3 provinces with more than 50,000 cases.
The provinces with the largest number of HIV/AIDS infections in the country are: Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan.
The provinces with low incidence are the most numerous, mainly located in Tibet in the northeast, north China, northwest china and southwest China, accounting for nearly half of the country's land area.
The incidence of AIDS generally shows a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the south, low in the north, high in the west and low in the east".
Second, the annual growth rate distribution
In terms of changes in the number of AIDS patients in China, Guizhou, Anhui, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Chongqing have the highest annual growth rates.
The annual growth rates of Fujian, Shanxi, Beijing, Hubei and Henan are at the bottom.
On the whole, the changes in the incidence of AIDS in China are not only different in different provinces and regions, but also at the regional level, showing a geographical difference pattern of "the fastest in the west, the second in the east, and the slowest in the central region".
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
3. Regional agglomeration
In terms of regional agglomeration of AIDS, due to the restrictive movement of people in neighboring areas, it is easy to form an AIDS agglomeration zone around areas with high incidence of AIDS - in the southwest region, with Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan as the center of the high incidence area;
In the northwest, northeast and other places, many low-incidence areas of AIDS have been formed.
Fourth, the distribution of changes in the trend
Due to the population flow between provinces and regions, the imbalance in the incidence of AIDS in various provinces and regions has played a significant role in correcting the imbalance in the incidence of AIDS in various provinces and regions, so the number of AIDS patients in various provinces and regions in China will tend to be consistent in the future.
The floating population has contributed to the spread of AIDS among the populations.
Most of the floating population is separated from their families, household registrations, and from normal and formal social constraint mechanisms, which relatively increases the exposure of dangerous or unprotected sex, which is a high-risk factor for the spread of AIDS.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
A 2010-2015 monitoring data from the mainland's dark prostitution sentinel points shows that the proportion of people infected with HIV in the mainland's dark prostitution population has remained at a low level of 0.20% to 0.30% in recent years, which may have a lot to do with the intervention of high-risk behaviors of dark prostitution (such as increased government regulatory crackdowns and increased protection of sexual behavior by the public) and the increase in the rate of AIDS treatment.
Nevertheless, due to the uncontrollable nature of population movements, the spread of AIDS among the underprivileged population still requires vigilance.
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