Free testing to detect HIV cases
Guangzhou will have facilities for free HIV testing at 13 district hospitals before the end of next month, a health bureau official said yesterday.
The only screening facility in the city now is at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the official said.
Widespread HIV screening is seen as crucial to the city and Guangdong to control a disease that was once confined to drug users and transmitted through high-risk sexual behaviour, but is now spreading to the general population.
The Department of Health has announced plans to test for HIV at the four hospitals designated to treat HIV patients.
Latest statistics showed that in the first 10 months of last year, Guangdong had 91 new Aids cases, up from 38 cases in the same period in 2003. New HIV infections numbered 2,030 in the same period.
Guangdong has 7,044 reported HIV cases. But experts said that there were more than 40,000 unreported cases. Health department officials said voluntary HIV testing could help discover hidden cases and control transmission.
