China News Net, Liuzhou, 13 August – the Liuzhou city CDC recently revealed that last year’s HIV screenings among STI patients showed an HIV infection rate of 1.8%, about 10 times the normal infection rate. Multiple sex partners and sharing needles among IV drug users have become the main route of HIV transmission.

In order to control the spread of HIV from high risk groups to the general population, the Liuzhou authorities are taking an open and transparent attitude. From 2003, it has kicked off the “100% condom use project”, the “China-Australia Asian regional cooperation project (Needle exchange)”, a “Chinese medicine AIDS treatment project”, and the “Liuzhou Global Fund project”, among others.

It is understood that, when HIV screening tests were done among STI patients last year, the HIV+ rate was already at 1.8%. In one case, a 23 year-old female STI patient in Liuzhou tested positive for HIV. She was an injecting drug addict with multiple sex partners who had also shared needles with other drug users, so doctors were unable to determine the route through which she was infected.

According to one AIDS expert, when people are infected with STIs, their reproductive systems will normally exhibit some sores or lesions, especially females, and that as soon as they have contact with bodily fluids from an HIV+ person, it is very easy for HIV to enter via that sore and infect the person.

In one village in Labao Township in Liuzhou City, more than 40 people were found to be taking drugs from 1995 until 2000, and to date 23 people have died and 4 are current facing death. Among them the majority are unmarried men younger than 30 years old. This has been a painful lesson in the dangers of drug use, and recently there are almost no young villagers who enter the world of drug addicts.

At present, the Luizhou Global Fund project has already entered the implementation phase, and after a thorough investigation and selection process, Liuzhou has identified and will open six VCT clinics. Including Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern, and Central districts, the plan will basically meet the Global Fund requirements of “convenient, close, and easy to reach” testing and counseling services. By offering these testing and information services to IV drug users who are already participating in needle exchange and Methadone Maintenance programs, the plan will inform people of their HIV status, initiate prevention treatment, and improve their health awareness and quality of life.

In addition, two maternal health centers in Liuzhou City will begin long-term cooperation on HIV/AIDS control with the Liuzhou Number two Air Force hospital, and will provide health education to women working in the entertainment industry, including health counseling, STI treatment, and HIV testing and counseling (VCT) services. This will help them to improve their understanding of STIs and HIV/AIDS and decrease the rate of infection and transmission.

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