The Tianjin city departments of health and disease control recently reported new statistics: From January to July this year, the city reported 21 new cases of HIV infection, (among them three cases of AIDS), as many as were reported in all of 2003. Among them 11 were infected through sexual contact, or 52.38%. To date, the city has reported 118 cases of HIV infection, with nine cases of AIDS and six deaths. According to expert estimates, the city actually has more than 1,000 people infected with the HIV virus.

Since 1991, when the first case of HIV infection was discovered in a foreign student, until the end of 2003, there were a cumulative 97 reported cases of HIV infection, less than a 0.01% infection rate. Experts say that while the city is still a low prevalence area for HIV, the growing rate of increase must not be ignored . The 21 reported infections in 2003 is a 75% increase over the 12 reported in 2002. The number of reported cases from January to July this year is 61.54% more than the 13 cases reported during the same time last year.

At present, it is understood that the bulk of the reported HIV infections are among the migrant population, who make up 55.1% of the reported cases, with young men the majority. Among the cases discovered from January to July this year the male-female ratio was 9.5 : 1, with the youngest being 9 years old and the oldest 70 years old. The means of transmission in the city is currently shifting from mainly drug use to a combination of sex and drug use.

Of the infections reported from January to July 2004, 11 were due to sexual contact, or 52.38%. What particularly worries people is that that in July this year the city reported its first case of an HIV+ pregnant woman, which means that there is now a problem of mother-to-child transmission as well.