Although the Chinese government initially responded to the Henan outbreak by banning journalists and international aid workers (13) , it eventually addressed the issue of unsafe blood donation and officially banned the practice of pooled donations. Their countermeasures were reasonably successful, with few blood-donation-related HIV cases appearing after 1996 (8) . Nonetheless, the spreading phase probably never ended as such; rather it was superseded by the expansion phase as HIV positive individuals began unknowingly infecting others. This situation was facilitated by a number of interrelated and complex social factors that China faced as it rapidly industrialised and social freedoms increased. HIV now has a firm foothold in Chinese society, with HIV-1 subtypes now including A, B, Thai B, C, D, E, F and G, as well as BC and BB recombinants (4).