Nearly 25 percent of Chinese know little of AIDS

Nearly one-quarter of China's people lack even basic knowledge about AIDS, while 2% have never heard of the disease, the Beijing Youth Daily said. A survey by the outspoken Southern Weekend newspaper of 1000 households in four cities showed that 24% of respondents knew little or nothing about AIDS, while just 5% said they were very familiar with the disease, the daily said. About 69% said they had some understanding of AIDS, and 2% said they had never heard of the disease, it quoted the survey as saying. Differences in understanding of AIDS were especially marked along educational lines, with educated people more likely to read newspapers that were the main source of AIDS information in China, it said. Younger people were more likely to know more about the disease than older people. Most of those who said they knew something about the disease had identified sexual activity and blood exchange as the main means of transmission, but 16% believed it could be spread through casual contact. About one-third of respondents said they thought AIDS was a major problem in China, according to the survey. At the end of October 1996 China reported 5157 cases of people infected with HIV and 133 patients with advanced AIDS. Officials said the actual number of those infected could be as high as 100,000. The population of China is about 1.2 billion.