Prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in China: lessons from the past three decades / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

In the past 37 years, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) has undergone various major transmission routes in China, with the world most complex co-circulating HIV-1 subtypes, even the prevalence is still low. In response to the first epidemic outbreak of HIV in injecting drug users and the second one by illegal commercial blood collection, China issued the Anti-Drug Law and launched the Blood Donation Act and nationwide nucleic acid testing, which has avoided 98,232 to 211,200 estimated infections and almost ended the blood product-related infection. China has been providing free antiretroviral therapy (ART) since 2003, which covered >80% of the identified patients and achieved a viral suppression rate of 91%. To bend the curve of increasing the disease burden of HIV and finally end the epidemic, China should consider constraining HIV spread through sexual transmission, narrowing the gaps in identifying HIV cases, and the long-term effectiveness and safety of ART in the future.

Study on the rates of infection and spontaneous clearance on HCV among HIV-infected men who have sex with men in China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The aim of this study was to understand the rates of infection and spontaneous clearance on hepatitis C virus (HCV) among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HIV-infected MSM from Shenyang, Beijing, Changsha and Kunming were selected to take the HCV antibody and HVC-RNA tests, and then classified into 'under recovery (RNA-/Ab+) ' or being chronic (RNA+/Ab+). Information on demography, CD4(+) T cell, HIV viral load and liver biochemical indicators were also collected.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In 513 HIV-infected MSM, the positive rate of HCV antibody was 1.94% (10/513) and the positive rate of HVC-RNA was 0.77% (4/513). Five patients showed clearance of HVC-RNA, spontaneously. These 5 patients had low levels of both alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and with high level of CD4(+) T cells, when compared to those who were not able to clear the HVC-RNA.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Currently, the HCV infection rate was still at quite low level among the HIV-infected MSM in China. Dynamic of HIV/HCV co-infection should be monitored so as to develop suitable strategy on prevention and treatment among this population, in China.</p>