The numbers are small but rising, and two provinces have worrying HIV prevalence rates in pregnant women

As the number of people with HIV infection increases in China, the potential for the epidemic to spread from high risk groups to the general population, including children, is a concern. An estimated 840 000 adults and children (a prevalence of 0.1%) were living with HIV in China in 2003.1 That number may approach 10 million by 2010 if the current trends persist.2 An HIV prevalence of over 1% among pregnant women has been considered an indicator of a generalised epidemic.3 Whether that rate is currently being seen in any parts of China is of great public health importance. Here we review the current state of mother to child transmission in China.

The most common modes of HIV transmission have been sharing of contaminated needles among intravenous drug users in southern and western China, unsafe blood collection in central China, and unsafe sexual practices among commercial sex workers, men who …