HIV in China: Understanding the Social Aspects of the Epidemic

When Chinas first HIV-positive patient was reported in 1985, among those initially infected were peasants who had sold their plasma to international companies. Then it became clear that sex workers and injecting drug users were also becoming infected, and later, transient populations, ethnic groups and the poor. The realisation that HIV was a profoundly social issue had begun to dawn. It was becoming clear that this epidemic was being propelled by three main economic drivers: the blood trade, the drug trade, and the sex trade. In this unique book young Chinese scholars map some of the most important social, political and cultural characteristics of the HIV epidemic in that country. The result of a collaboration between the University of New South Wales and Tsinghua University in Beijing, HIV in China uncovers some hidden truths about the spread of the disease and its social impacts.