AIDS Rate Rises in China

China has acknowledged that it has a growing AIDS problem, with the number of officially registered HIV carriers and AIDS patients expected to jump from 346,000 to 780,000 by the end of 2011, according to state media. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of HIV-positive men 60 and older soared from 483 cases in 2005 to 3,031 in 2010. Infections among younger men rose as well. "The distribution of HIV/AIDS cases in our country is now wider and more scattered than ever, posing great difficulties for prevention and control efforts," said the director of the center. People with HIV/AIDS in China say they are often stigmatized, and in the 1990s the government attempted to cover it up when hundreds of thousands of farmers became infected through a blood-selling scheme.