No new cases of HIV infections were recorded among prostitutes
in the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan last year, but
health authorities have warned against complacency to the
disease.
Five out of a total of 14 "AIDS surveillance stations" set up in
the city monitored infection rates among high risk groups including
employees in Karaoke bars, massage parlors and hair-dressing
salons.
There are an estimated 1,639 such workers in the city largely
populated by a migrant labor force, according to a report by
Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily.
"Workers in these workplaces are more likely to give sex
services," the newspaper cited an anonymous official of Dongguan's
anti-AIDS work team as saying. "They were the major target of the
anti-AIDS initiative around the country."
The team works directly under the city government and also
closely monitors intravenous drug users and people with a history
of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Special health teams took more than 16,000 samples last year, of
which some 200 new HIV positive cases were found. None were
prostitutes.
Health officials discovered 350 new cases of AIDS last year,
bringing the total number of AIDS patients to 1,129, according to
the figures from Dongguan Disease Control and Prevention Center. Of
the new cases, some 90 people, or nearly a quarter, were infected
through sexual activities.
Dongguan has begun providing free treatment to AIDS patients who
are permanent residents.
Meanwhile, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported the
city would apply to have two more clinics that provide Methadone
maintenance treatment to heroin addicts.
Dongguan already has two clinics.
A total of 167 drug users in the city received Methadone
maintenance treatment, an oral synthetic narcotic that helps
suppress desire for heroin.
However, the officials from the city's health bureau refuted the
report yesterday. "We don't have such a plan. The existing two are
still in an experimental stage," an official surnamed Zhang told
China Daily yesterday.
(China Daily March 2, 2007)