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Jane Moir

ANONYMOUS testing indicates Hong Kong's HIV infections are running at double the rate reflected by reported figures.

  The results also show the AIDS virus is present in 'no-risk' groups.

  The Government Virus Unit carries out anonymous testing on the blood of thousands of people who give blood samples for other reasons.

 The donors are unaware they are being checked for HIV and, to ensure anonymity, there is no information linking blood samples to identities.

 Last year, blood from 4,000 pregnant women - considered to be a zero-risk group - were tested, with one positive result found.

 The results were similar to those for 'high-risk' groups, such as clients of methodone clinics, which showed one positive result in 3,700.

 But 'mid-risk' categories such as tuberculosis patients showed four out of 1,000 samples tested positive for HIV.

 Some 1,500 'healthy males' aged 16 and over have been tested anonymously since 1990. One was found to be HIV positive.

 Overall, more than 60,000 people have been tested anonymously for the virus since 1990. Tests are done at random from routine samples taken at various clinics.

 Compared to recorded cases of HIV - 821 have been reported since the surveillance system started in 1984 - the anonymous results indicate the virus has spread more widely than previously thought.

 Recorded cases indicate one infection in every 6,250 people, from an adult population of about five million.

 But anonymous testing indicates the overall figure is one in 2,700, increasing to one in 750 for 'high-risk' categories such as prisoners.

 Since 1990, 13 of the 9,714 prisoners tested have had HIV.

 Government AIDS consultant Dr Lee Shui-shan said Hong Kong's HIV and AIDS rate was probably much higher than indicated by the reporting system, which tallies the number of voluntary HIV tests.

 Experts were drawing up more scientific formulas for projecting estimates of Hong Kong's HIV and AIDS situation, Dr Lee said.

 'If you look at the HIV/AIDS reported figures, they tend to be biased,' he said. 'There must be some people already infected but they don't come forward to be tested.

 'What we know from reported statistics is quite inaccurate.'  Anonymous testing 'reflects the truth more than the reporting system', he added.

 New projections of the actual situation are now being formulated. 'We want to be more scientific,' Dr Lee said.

 The latest HIV and AIDS figures for the second quarter of 1997 will be out tomorrow.

 Groups such as AIDS Concern believe the Government should focus more on informing people about the availability of testing and other services. 'We want the human side instead of some scientific research,' executive administrator Bella Luk Po-chu said.



Shock new AIDS figures