WHO urges China to step up fight against Aids, which afflicts half million mainlanders

The World Health Organisation has called on China to act over Aids, amid government figures that show nearly half a million people are living with the disease or its precursor, with hundreds of thousands more thought to be undiagnosed.

Dr Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organisation's representative in China, wrote in an op-ed in the state-run China Daily newspaper yesterday that "there is much more China needs to do" to prevent infection and better help those living with HIV.

"Perhaps most importantly, we must eliminate stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV, and at-risk populations such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, and injecting drug users," Schwartlander wrote.

"I've seen some of my own colleagues in the medical profession turn patients away because they disapproved of the person's sexual orientation. That is simply unacceptable, and it has to stop."

The op-ed was published on World Aids Day, a day after the National Health and Family Planning Commission said that by the end of October, a total of 497,000 people on the mainland had been diagnosed with HIV/Aids since the country's first case in 1985.

The figure represents an increase from September last year, when 434,000 people on the mainland were known to be living with HIV/Aids. But it was not clear whether the rise was due to an increase in infection, or more cases being diagnosed.