Authorities launched Red Ribbon Action to promote AIDS awareness Tuesday, the day before World AIDS Day.

During the day, workers from the Shenzhen Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SZCDC) and medical staff from hospitals visited several neighborhoods and shopping centers throughout the city to distribute educational leaflets and condoms and communicate with people about AIDS prevention.

The number of HIV-infected people in Shenzhen increased by 103 percent in the first 10 months of the year over the same period last year, said Zhuang Zhixiong, director of the SZCDC.

"The spread of AIDS in Shenzhen is gathering speed," he said.

Shenzhen had taken a series of measures to deal with the situation. The city now has 58 laboratories, 56 for initial screening and two for diagnosis. The city provides free blood tests for people who volunteer for examinations for HIV, free treatment for impoverished AIDS patients, free education for orphans of AIDS parents and free HIV examinations and treatment for pregnant women.

"We have set up interference task forces for homosexuals and high-risk people," said Zhuang. Figures show that 60 to 75 percent of Shenzhen's "sex workers" used condoms, the highest proportion in China, he said.

Among drug users with Shenzhen hukou, or permanent residence, only 8 percent shared needles, while the city's public awareness of AIDS had reached 60 to 85 percent.

The city detected its first HIV-infected patient in 1992. So far, there are 829 registered HIV carriers and AIDS patients.

"We found 274 new cases from January to October," Zhuang said. "Men account for 75.9 percent of the total and women 24 percent."

Of the new cases, 57.7 percent were drug users who were infected by sharing needles, 28.5 percent through sexual activity and 12.7 percent through blood transfusions. Only 1.1 percent were mother-child infections.

Zhuang attributed the increase to more people being infected with the virus while an expanded monitoring network enabled more people to be screened. Another reason was the improved skills and vigilance of medical workers responsible for detecting the disease. Increased awareness of the disease had also resulted in more people coming forward for medical examinations. Finally, the increase in the incidence of HIV was because more carriers had come to settle in Shenzhen from other parts of the country, said Zhuang.

 
Editor: Catherine