A research study done by the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention has concluded that the AIDS virus in China originated in 1989 with 146 drug addicts found in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Wu Zunyou, director of the center, disclosed this information during an AIDS-related meeting held at Tsinghua University. According to Wu, a small segment of the drug-using population in one of Yunnan's prefectures was found infected with AIDS in 1989.

The prefecture at that time had a population of 1 million. By the end of 2006 the prefecture had 1.1 million residents with twenty thousand, or 2 percent of the total population, infected with the AIDS virus. During these 17 years, AIDS spread beyond Yunnan to the rest of China.

Wu also said that based on the data analysis, the strain of AIDS found among Chinese drug addicts is the same as is commonly found in Thailand and he believes it spread from the 146 infected addicts discovered in 1989.

AIDS expert Zhang Konglai noted that these earliest infected drug addicts were from the Golden Triangle, the area encompassing territory between Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos that is notorious for the production and trafficking of opiates.

Previous studies have shown that the HIV virus is commonly spread among drug addicts who share needles and then infect their partners through unprotected sex. Male drug addicts tend to be promiscuous and often seek sex from prostitutes who contract HIV and pass along the virus to other customers.

In addition, over 50 percent of female drug addicts are involved in prostitution and they often pass the virus on to their clients who then infect their spouses and even children.    

(China.org.cn by Pang Li, November 30, 2007)