A campaign to educate students about contraception will be launched in March, medical experts said yesterday.

The move follows survey revelations that an astonishing two percent of Chinese women - compared with 30 to 50 percent of Western women - use the contraceptive pill.

The program - to comprise a Website and a series of college campus lectures - will focus on Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

It is an initiative of the newly-established China Contraception Alliance.

A TV talk show, a national education tour and a program to offer doctors advice will kick off later next year.

In a bid to improve women's health and compile scientific information about contraception, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, China Health Education Association, All-China Women's Federation and Bayer HeathCare launched the alliance, the nation's first facility to focus on the subject.

"Unlike private doctors in the West, Chinese doctors only receive patients with problems and give treatment," said Dr Fan Guangsheng, the alliance's president and director of Chinese Medical Association's family planning branch. "Very few Chinese people go to hospitals to seek advice about appropriate contraception and we want to change that culture."

"Though there are various vehicles to access contraception knowledge - and the government has made efforts to promote this information - public understanding of contraception still needs be strengthened, especially voluntary contraception."

(Shanghai Daily December 20, 2007)