Gay men in Guangdong now have access to free and confidential HIV tests.

The AIDS Prevention and Treatment Institute of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control started offering the tests Sunday.

He Qun, the institute's vice-director, said examination results would never be leaked and confidentiality would be maintained.

The aim of the free HIV examination is to tackle the spread of the fatal AIDS disease that is now threatening prosperous Guangdong Province.

The examinations may help his institute research the spread of HIV among gay men, which He said make up between 2 and 4 percent of the local population.

For the next three years, people, including foreigners, can send blood samples to He's institute for examination.

"The odds of homosexual men passing on HIV are five times larger than lesbian women," said He.

In another development, Guangdong Province is planning to build a syphilis prevention and treatment center to help handle the province's growing number of syphilis patients.

The decision came after more than 9,000 syphilis patients were counted last year, the highest number in the country.

Sexually transmitted diseases are now threatening the province, said Jin Jianxing, an official from the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control, Sunday.

Meanwhile, a special year-long campaign to help fight syphilis in the four cities of Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan and Jiangmen will be launched next month.

(China Daily October 11, 2004)