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Safe sex next front in nation's AIDS battle
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-22 20:47
When Dawei first started having sex, he had no idea that using a condom could
help protect him from AIDS. Now he never leaves home without putting a few in
his bag.
"I didn't use condoms," said the 23-year-old. "I thought that because we were
comfortable with each other, we didn't have to. I had only a very hazy idea
about AIDS then."
He says he has no idea when he became infected, or by whom. Today he
dedicates his life to educating other people about the disease and safe sex.
"It's everyone's responsibility," he says quietly. "This is a common enemy."
Dawei is one of an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.
Yet the pattern of infection is changing, and that is worrying health experts.
"The sex part, which is now increasing as a mode of transmission, is a very
clear sign that it might be moving towards the general population," said Henk
Bekedam, the World Health Organisation's representative in China.
But the fight to stop the spread of the disease sexually is being hampered by
a lack of education, unwillingness to talk about sex, and in some cases by
downright hostility from ordinary people, experts and activists say.
"We've tried to hand out condoms and AIDS information at bars and clubs, but
many people don't want to take them," said one Chinese AIDS activist, who asked
not to be named.
"They think that if they do, it means you think they are a bad person and
that you suspect they might already have AIDS. There is still a lot of shame
about sex in China."
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