China Must Fight Aids, Official Warns

China has “no time to waste” in fighting AIDS as drug abuse, prostitution and ignorance help spread the disease, China’s health minister warned Wednesday.

Chen Minzhang said a drastic increase in sexually transmitted diseases, illegal blood banks, a huge migrant population and high rates of AIDS in neighboring countries may also increase the number of cases in China.

“Now is the prime time for prevention and control of HIV infection - it could be the last chance,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Chen as saying. “We have no time to waste.”

Chen’s comments were unusually forthcoming for the Chinese government, which long treated AIDS as a foreigners’ disease.

His comments were echoed in part by Peng Peiyun, a member of the State Council, or Cabinet, who said “the whole of society” should help combat AIDS, Xinhua reported.

Peng spoke at a national conference where health experts warned that the world’s most populous nation will see cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, “spinning out of control if preventive measures are not taken immediately.”