研究故事

HKU’s AIDS Institute marks five years as watchdog against a disease that is still regarded with some indifference in the region.

Fujian province is rarely mentioned in the coverage of AIDS in China, unlike Yunnan, Guanxi and Henan where drug use, sexual transmission and blood transfusions have raised infection rates. But if Fujian is not high profile, it may be a harbinger of things to come.

The province was the subject of a study by HKU’s AIDS Institute that showed the number of infections doubled (from 528 to 1,129) between 2006–07 and 2008–09 and the prevalence of infection was increasing (from 0.064 per cent to 0.074 per cent). Most significantly, sexual transmission was a major source of the higher numbers, accounting for 71.4 per cent of cases in 2008–09 against only 53.4 per cent in 2006–07.

All of those factors indicated the virus was gaining a hold in the general population.

“Unprotected heterosexual and homosexual contact is the major mode of HIV transmission in the general population in Fujian,” says the Institute’s Director, Dr Chen Zhiwei. “The rising infection rate in the general population poses a new challenge to national efforts against HIV/AIDS.”

"Often people don’t think AIDS is a big problem anymore. That’s not true. We don’t have a vaccine. We don’t have a therapeutic cure. We still have a problem."

Dr Chen Zhiwei

Dr Chen Zhiwei, Director of AIDS Institute, says the novel CCR5 antagonist (TD-0680) may be formulated into microbicide gels to prevent spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission.

The full version of this article was originally published in Bulletin. Please click here to view this HKU publication.