Half of prostitutes unaware of condoms' benefits

More than half of Beijing's 90,000 prostitutes still do not ask clients to use condoms despite more people contracting HIV/AIDS through sexual contact, a municipal health official said yesterday.

Only 46.5 percent of the prostitutes use condoms, said Fang Laiying, the Beijing municipal public health bureau chief. This made them more vulnerable to the deadly virus.

Sexual transmission has replaced intravenous drug use (IDU) as the main cause of HIV/AIDS in the capital, accounting for 54.6 percent of infections, Fang told a work conference.