A health support group says men should have more HIV check-ups after a survey showed four out of five males have never tested for the virus.
Aids Concern, a non-government body that runs Aids support and prevention programmes, interviewed 213 men in various locations around the city, including taxi stands and construction sites, between December and February and found that 81 per cent of them had never had any sexual health checks.
It advocates that sexually active men should have HIV tests at least once a year, while those who have more than one sexual partner should be checked every three months.
'Many men are conservative in thinking and are affected by old concepts. From our outreach experience, it is usually harder to persuade men than women to have sexual health checks,' said Panda Cheung Yin-mei, the group's programme director.
Of those never tested, almost half reckoned they had normal sexual relations with no symptoms and, therefore, no need for checks. A quarter said it was not necessary, and six per cent said they had no time.
Aids Concern provides free rapid tests for HIV and syphilis infections as well as counselling for men at its centres.