AIDS in China

Abstract

In June of 1985, an Argentine-American tourist was hospitalized in Beijing's Xiehe Hospital with a pulmonary infection and subsequent respiratory failure. During his hospitalization, he was diagnosed with PCP and AIDS, thereby becoming the first person to be diagnosed with HIV in China (First AIDS case, 2001). In the same year, four hemophiliacs in Zhejiang province tested positive for anti-HIV antibodies (Zhejiang HIV/AIDS patients, 2005). After ruling out other risk factors such as risky sexual contact, intravenous drug use, and mother-to-child transmission, it was determined that all four people had received Factor VIII treatment in which imported HIV-contaminated products were used. This revelation raised the likelihood that HIV had entered China before 1985. © 2008 Springer US.