http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/chi...ds-like-disease-spreading-in-china-53864.html
New AIDS-Like Disease Appears in China
State dismisses the disease as phobia, but patients are dying
By Chen Yilian & Wei Tuo
New Epoch Magazine Created: Jun 16, 2010 Last Updated: Mar 31, 2011
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A man walks past banners in Beijing bearing a message calling upon people to help halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. China already has an AIDS problem, and now perhaps a 'negative-AIDS' problem. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images)
Lin Feng of Shanghai, 49, suddenly felt ill in May 2008, saying he suddenly felt his muscles twitching and had severe pain in his internal organs. His ears rang and his joints made a cracking sound. He also suffered from muscae volitantes (where one sees spots), and found that his thymus gland, a vital element of the immune system, had disappeared.
Lin checked himself into a hospital for examination and was diagnosed with liver failure, hepatitis B, and herpetic gastritis (inflammation of the stomach caused by the herpes virus). He vomited after each meal. In six months, his weight dropped from 181 to 115 pounds.
After 18 months, Lin said that his internal organs have hardened and he has difficulty walking as his joints crack in pain, his skin feels like fiber, he has lymphatic pain, and the muscles and fat tissues under his skin cause him pain. Even though he takes numerous showers, he said his skin feels sticky and oily no matter what.
“I feel I am dying,” he said. He said he has fallen into the depths of despair.
Ping An, a former Chinese military man in his 40s, suddenly felt ill after a reunion with fellow former military men in 2009.
“I have never had a headache or dizziness like that. Next I developed dermatitis and fungus on my skin. The lymph nodes in my jaw were swollen," he said. "I was checked into the hospital five times, but my condition did not improve."
Ping also experienced severe pains in his bones and said some of his internal organs have become hardened.
"I am in pain," he said. "My bones are in pain. My bones crackle. I've developed white tongue fur."
He added that he developed a cardiac tumor, with his skin appearing "purplish." Once a day, he says, he experiences a minor heart attack and "muscles all over my body twitch."
"It is a miracle that I am still alive," he said.
Like these two, hundreds more in China have reported symptoms similar to AIDS, where the immune system fails, but the patients do not test HIV-positive. New Epoch Magazine reporters have found dozens of Internet chat groups with dozens to hundreds of members saying that they also suffer from the AIDS-like symptoms.
Most people said they started developing the symptoms after having sex. Lin Feng and Ping An are two thus far who reported having AIDS-like symptoms, but have not had sex.
China's Center for Disease Control (CCDC) dismissed the patients' claims and classified them as having “HIV-phobia.”
According to the CCDC, because they are afraid of contracting AIDS, these patients have developed psychological problems, leading them to suffer AIDS-like symptoms.
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Whatever the cause, more people are saying that they have contracted a mysterious AIDS-like disease for which they receive no effective treatment.
A man wishing to remain anonymous said, “In our group, many people who developed the symptoms have already died. New people continue to join our group. We are certain it is not a mental problem, but a virus infection. But we know nothing else about the disease. My personal guess is that there could be millions in China with the same disease.”
Patients refer to the disease as “negative HIV,” as they experience AIDS-like symptoms but don't test positive.
Some patients who claim to share the symptoms say it is highly contagious and can be spread by having unprotected or protected sex, kissing, sharing utensils, and coming into contact with others' perspiration. After they were infected, they said their immune systems began to fail.
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http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/chi...ds-like-disease-spreading-in-china-53864.html
Highly Contagious AIDS-Like Disease Spreading in China
By Chen Yilian
Epoch Times Staff Created: Mar 30, 2011 Last Updated: Apr 2, 2011
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A poster to promote AIDS awareness ahead of World AIDS Day in Beijing. A highly contagious AIDS-like disease is spreading in China, However, HIV tests come up negative.
In a small hotel across from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a reporter from New Express Daily, dressed in an isolation suit, interviewed a dozen “unusual” patients from different areas of China. Their symptoms are painful and debilitating, and AIDS-like, but repeated tests for HIV have come up negative.
Lin Jun, one of the patients interviewed in the March 24 New Express Daily report, said he used to be chubby, but now he is skin and bones, and his joints have become all deformed.
Lin is referred to in the group as “big brother” for his kindness and giving fellow patients hope when they feel hopeless, with some having considered suicide.
In 2008 Lin’s mother received a blood transfusion at a hospital. Afterwards, she experienced frequent night sweats, numb limbs, aches all over, creaking joints, rashes on her hands, and weight loss.
In May of that year, Lin accidentally became infected through contact with his mother’s blood. Fourteen days later, he fell ill with swollen lymph nodes on his neck, sore knees that made clicking sounds, and pain all over his body. He also started vomiting after every meal, and the left side of his face swelled up. In half a year, his weight dropped from 82 kilograms (181 lbs) to 52 kilograms (115 lbs).
Three months later, his wife and child developed the same symptoms.
Lin said he went to every major hospital in Shanghai, but could not get a definite diagnosis. He has taken the HIV test eight times, and each time the test turned out negative.
Then he found an Internet blog called “The Negative Group,” which he learned stands for “HIV negative.” He realized that writing on this blog were all people like himself, with the same kinds of symptoms, desperate to find a cure.
Several Chinese media have recently reported that the Department of Health of Guangdong Province has confirmed that people in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have fallen ill after being infected with an unknown virus. The patients think they have AIDS, but they test negative for HIV.
Guangdong has organized clinical experts, epidemiologists and psychologists to work together on these cases. The Health Ministry has also selected six provinces with more patients, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangsu and Guangdong, to conduct epidemiological studies, but there are no results yet, the reports said.
In most of the 30 cases investigated by New Express Daily for its March 24 report, people said their relatives and friends are also infected. Most of the 30 patients were infected through sexual contact. Some experts diagnosed them as having AIDS phobia.
However, the disease seems to be highly contagious and can spread by contact via any bodily fluid—through kissing, shared utensils, sweat, and even protected sex. Once infected, the immune system appears to be attacked, which results in a decrease of white blood cells and the body’s ability to defend against infectious disease and foreign materials.
In the past, official health agencies have only conducted HIV tests on these patients and have not checked for other, similarly pathological viruses. With HIV results coming up negative, many patients then stopped taking protective measures with their relatives. Subsequently, all their relatives and friends were infected, many have said.
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One infected man told The Epoch Times that the disease is highly infectious and hard to prevent. His wife and two-year-old child both appear to have it. The child has lip and skin blood spots, he said.
A retired officer in his 40’s told The Epoch Times for a previous June 16, 2010 report that he had been infected with a disease with similar symptoms in 2009, at a get-together at a friend’s house. “I thought it was just a cold at the time, so I still participated in all kind of gatherings. Consequently, over 100 of my comrades in the army, relatives and friends were infected by me,” he said.
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