Reaching gay men: the next big test in HIV/Aids prevention in China
Most new cases are sexually transmitted, with sex between men the fastest growing source
The knowledge is there, and so is the treatment. Now the challenge is to reach more people who are at high risk of HIV/Aids to get tested.
In the last few decades medical advances have transformed Aids from a death sentence into a chronic disease. It can be treated and controlled – provided, of course, that a person with the HIV virus is diagnosed.
By far the fastest growing group of new cases is among male homosexuals, and it’s there that many health experts are concentrating their efforts to check the disease’s spread.
About 87,000 new cases of HIV/Aids were registered on the mainland in the first 10 months of this year, with more than 90 per cent of them sexually transmitted. Of those cases, a quarter were between men, said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Centre for Aids/STD Control and Prevention. In 2006 the rate was just 2.5 per cent.
In bigger cities, the figure is even more alarming – about half of new cases in major metropolitan centres fell into this category, Wu said, rising to 80 per cent in northern capitals such as Changchun, Harbin and Beijing.
The number of students with the virus was also rising. Last year five provinces reported that more than 100 students had tested positive for HIV in their jurisdictions.