History
After years of denial, China finally admitted that HIV/AIDS threatened its public health and economic security. China's most senior AIDS researcher stated that China could soon have one of the world's largest populations of people living with HIV. Infections were predicted to grow from about 600,000 to 6 million by 2005.90 It was believed that nearly 75% of people living with HIV in China had acquired the virus through injecting drug use or transfusion with contaminated blood.91
The Indian drug company Cipla offered to make AIDS drugs available at reduced prices to the international aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Cipla's offer to produce drugs at a price less than $1 per day put further pressure on multinational drug companies.92
The U.S. Government threatened Brazil with legal action over its production of generic HIV drugs.93 The complaint was dropped later in the year and Brazil promised to give the USA advance warning before changing its patent law for drugs.94
Thirty-nine pharmaceutical companies withdrew their case against the South African government's efforts to lower drug prices. This victory was, however, overshadowed by a statement by the health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who said that the government already offered adequate treatment to AIDS patients and that proposals to buy antiretroviral drugs were still being considered.95 The South African government released its annual HIV/AIDS figures estimating that 4.7 million people were infected with HIV/AIDS and that 24.5% of pregnant women were HIV-positive in 2000.96
According to a CDC study of six large U.S. cities, 30% of young gay black men were infected with HIV.97
"When people think 'gay', they think 'white'. But the people still at the greatest risk are sexually active gay men, and that cuts across all races."Helene Gayle of the CDC98
The CDC also reported that the rate of new HIV infections was increasing twice as fast among people aged over 50 as among younger age groups.
"Officials have speculated that a more open society, people entering the dating scene after the monogamy of marriage and the absence of a fear of pregnancy is causing the alarming rise in sexually transmitted infections."99
Zimbabwe's government announced that it would dissolve the board of the National AIDS Council, after allegations of inappropriate political support and mismanagement of funds. Zimbabwe had one of the highest HIV infection rates in Africa. It was estimated in 2001 that AIDS had orphaned 1 million children and 25% of Zimbabwe's 12 million population were HIV positive.100
In April 2001, it was reported that the year 2000 saw by the far the largest number of new HIV cases yet recorded in the UK. The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) recorded 3,435 new diagnoses in 2000
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