Migration and Gender in China’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Abstract

China today is considered to be a low HIV prevalence country. In 2007 there were an estimated 700,000 HIV cases corresponding to 0.1% of the adult population. HIV infections tend to be concentrated in relatively well-defined population subgroups, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), former plasma and blood donors, and female sex workers (FSWs) and their clients. Despite this low HIV prevalence, the Chinese HIV epidemic is considered to be in the stage of “rapid spread” (Grusky et al. 2002; Qian et al. 2005 cited in Hong and Li 2008), and concerns about a growing epidemic through heterosexual contact persist. Injecting drug users and former commercial blood and plasma donors currently comprise about 55% of all infections, while 44% of infections are among female sex workers, their clients and partners.