Men ignore sex-disease risks

Hong Kong men are continuing to have unprotected sex with prostitutes on the mainland, despite repeated warnings that they risk passing on sexually transmitted diseases to their partners, a study has found.

The Department of Health interviewed 1,736 people - aged between 15 and 93 - attending its 10 social hygiene clinics last November. The survey found that 45 per cent, or 779 people, had sexually transmitted diseases. It also found that 54.8 per cent of infected men - 60 per cent of whom were married - had more than one partner in the three months prior to the study, compared with only 7.1 per cent of female patients.

Seventy per cent of the total patients were men.

More than half the male patients said the last time they had casual sex, or sex with a prostitute, was on the mainland, compared with only 8.8 per cent of women. Nearly 47 per cent of patients said they had not used condoms.

Dr Kelvin Low Hon-kei, the department's senior medical officer, said unprotected sex with prostitutes in the mainland was one of the major causes of sexually transmitted diseases.

He warned that as 23.2 per cent of infected patients did not exhibit any symptoms, they could pass on the diseases without knowing. He said they had been targeting people who took part in cross-border sex in their education programme.