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Adrian Wan

About nine per cent of men in Hong Kong have visited a female prostitute in the past six months, with a quarter neglecting to use a condom.
The finding was revealed in a Chinese University study released to coincide with World Aids Day today.
The survey of about 2,000 Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 60 found one in every 11 had used a prostitute in the past six months. Translated to the population as a whole, it means 190,000 men of working age in Hong Kong visited a prostitute in the previous six months.
Only one in seven of those who said they had visited a prostitute said they had received an HIV test.
Of those  who said they had failed to use a condom, just over half said they believed they were free from any risk of contracting HIV, and 26 per cent said they did not believe condoms could prevent transmission of the virus.
The study, carried out in September by the university's Centre for Health Behaviours Research, under the School of Public Health, was part of a larger survey of 17,300 users of prostitutes.
It showed the number of men  using prostitutes had fallen from 14 per cent in 1998 to about nine per cent this year.
About a third of men using prostitutes were aged 30 or under.
The centre's director, Professor Joseph Lau Tak-fai, said the results seemed to show that the 'safe sex' message to men using prostitutes had been  ineffective as the use of condoms had not increased. He noted that  only 3.5 per cent of men who said they visited  prostitutes had received HIV  prevention services recently.
According to the Department of Health's Centre for Health Protection, 81 cases of HIV were reported in the third quarter of this year, bringing the total number to 4,730 since 1984. 
Of the new cases, 64 were in men, of whom 22 were infected from heterosexual contact, 30 from homosexual or bisexual contact and two through drug injection. 
It is not known how the virus was transmitted in the rest of the cases.
Lau said that much emphasis had been placed on HIV prevention among homosexuals. He said the  services for men using  female prostitutes now had to be improved.
Centre consultant Dr Wong Ka-hing said without treatment, about half of HIV-infected people will develop Aids within 10 years.




One in 11 men in HK admit using prostitutes