More HIV infections found among elderly

Elderly people have become the group that saw the fastest growth in reported HIV infections in China, with a 500 percent increase in the number of newly reported HIV/AIDS cases among men aged 60 or above between 2010 and last year, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, World AIDS Day.

Around 37,000 people aged 60 or above in China were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year－77 percent of them being men－accounting for 25 percent of the total number of reported new HIV cases, the WHO said.

Unsafe sex was the major cause of HIV infections among elderly men, with 60 percent of them claiming to have got infected via commercial sex activities, and 30 percent saying they got infected via non-commercial sex, such as extramarital sex, the WHO said in a report.

In all, 150,000 people in China were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year, and the total reported number of people living with HIV/AIDS reached 960,000 by the end of last year, the WHO said.

Globally, 1.7 million people were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year, and 690,000 died due to AIDS-related diseases, according to the WHO.

Although the number of newly reported HIV/AIDS cases in China has been rising in recent years, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in China remains at a low level, compared with most other countries, according to the National Health Commission.

However, the infection rate among elderly people, especially elderly men, has increased at a much faster rate over the past 10 years compared with the general increase among the whole population. (By WANG XIAODONG | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2020-12-02 07:24)

Golden Future, an Enterprise who is always stay true the social responsibility, calls for more attentions on the care of the Infected case and spent actions to help.