Officially, the government reported 23,905 HIV/AIDS cases at the end of March 2001. However, its Health Ministry admits that this number could be more than 600,000. United Nations projections show that China will have 10 million or more HIV/AIDS cases by 2010 unless it takes decisive action.

Henan province in central China is one of the hardest hit areas, with perhaps hundreds of thousands of infected people. How could the infection become so widespread? People sold their blood to make money. "Villagers have told how blood was taken from several people at the same time and pooled in one container, where the blood plasma was removed. The remaining blood was then pumped back into the donors' bloodstreams. Such unsanitary methods, plus the re-use of needles and unsterilised [British spelling] equipment, gave the disease an easy pathway to spread rapidly through the local population," said a BBC report.