China is to work out a HIV/AIDS prevention policy this year to
combat the rising incidence of HIV/AIDS in the country's gay
population, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The policy will incorporate detailed HIV/AIDS prevention
measures for MSM (men who have sex with men) including extending
the use of condoms, according to the ministry's work plan for
disease prevention and control in 2008.
China has decided to intensify its AIDS intervention campaign on
MSM by carrying out AIDS prevention training among the gay
population nationwide as well as conducting consultation, HIV/AIDS
tests, venereal disease treatment in some areas, the ministry
said.
According to an appraisal report jointly prepared by the
Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS,
among the 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China by the end
of 2007, 40.6 percent contracted the virus through heterosexual
transmission, 11.1 percent through MSM.
"Sex has become the main channel of contracting the HIV virus,"
the report said.
China has 10 million gay men, official figures show. Some
experts, however, estimated the homosexual population is around 50
million.
(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2008)