BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The new face of AIDS in China is a shy man with a heavy provincial accent, a weathered face and the rough hands of a manual worker. Zhang Xiaohu, a character in an educational film for migrant workers, is part of a trend that worries Chinese officials: the potential for AIDS to spread among the estimated 200 million rural migrants driving the country's rapid economic expansion. AIDS in China has, to date, mostly been limited to drug users, gay men, prostitutes and the victims of reckless blood-buying schemes in the 1990s. By the end of 2007, China had about 700,000 people with HIV/AIDS -- 0.05 percent of the total population -- health officials said on Sunday, ahead of World Aids Day the next day. "The epidemic is lowly prevalent in general but it is highly prevalent among specific groups such as migrant workers, and in some regions particularly remote areas and the countryside," said Wang Weizhen, deputy director of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment at the Ministry of Health, according to state media. Higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and other risk factors among male migrants have spurred an intensified effort to reach them before HIV spreads faster among them, and into the broader population. "Other at-risk groups are rather small, but this one is huge," said Sun Xinhua, head of an office to combat AIDS that reports directly to the State Council, China's cabinet.
By the end of 2007, China had about 700,000 people with HIV/AIDS -- 0.05 percent of the total population -- health officials said on Sunday, ahead of World Aids Day the next day.
A Chinese friend of mine said she estimated that for every officially recorded case, there could be 10 to 20 people who either do not know they are infected.
In the main departure lounges of Chengdu Airport (in the capital of Western Sichuan province) there are huge posters of the same Durex advertisment hanging prominently at every departure gate.
In convenience stores, brightly colored arrays of several brands of condoms are prominently and conveniently displayed right by the cash register (even more conspicuously than the requisite candy bars). The convenience store by my friend's apartment even has an impressive vibrator for sale packaged in a box that is open in front so that potential buyers can easily inspect and handle the piece before purchase.
Condoms are available for free, supposedly, in the countryside, and either free or at a significant discount to state employees. However, condoms sold in stores are surprisingly expensive (comparable to prices in Japan and the U.S.).
The problem is that China, despite all this paradoxical openness about condoms and sex in the sales of wares, nevertheless does a really poor job of sex education in high schools, and even college. It's in the textbooks, but the topic remains extremely awkward to discuss openly in a public forum, especially in a classroom with "children", so teachers are like, "Okay, you guys can read this chapter on your own at home." But I don't think these textbooks go into STDs and the details of transmission.
I have a Chinese friend who works in AIDS activism in Beijing. I should contact him and ask him for more information about this issue. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
As for sexual mores, well, it will have to be mostly from secondhand sources! =O Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
