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Reaching gay men: the next big test in HIV/Aids prevention in China
Most new cases are sexually transmitted, with sex between men the fastest growing source
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 30 November, 2014, 8:15pm
UPDATED : Monday, 01 December, 2014, 3:12am
Zhuang Pinghui [email protected]
Pan Hongmei, from China Rainbow Health, raises awareness about HIV/Aids. Photo: Simon Song
The knowledge is there, and so is the treatment. Now the challenge is to reach more people who are at high risk of HIV/Aids to get tested.
In the last few decades medical advances have transformed Aids from a death sentence into a chronic disease. It can be treated and controlled – provided, of course, that a person with the HIV virus is diagnosed.
By far the fastest growing group of new cases is among male homosexuals, and it’s there that many health experts are concentrating their efforts to check the disease’s spread.
About 87,000 new cases of HIV/Aids were registered on the mainland in the first 10 months of this year, with more than 90 per cent of them sexually transmitted. Of those cases, a quarter were between men, said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Centre for Aids/STD Control and Prevention. In 2006 the rate was just 2.5 per cent.
In bigger cities, the figure is even more alarming – about half of new cases in major metropolitan centres fell into this category, Wu said, rising to 80 per cent in northern capitals such as Changchun, Harbin and Beijing.
The number of students with the virus was also rising. Last year five provinces reported that more than 100 students had tested positive for HIV in their jurisdictions. This year, double that number of provinces had reached the same threshold by the end of October, and three more look set to do so by the year’s end.
For Wu, the critical and most difficult task now to prevent or control the disease is reaching these men, in particular the students.
“They have decades of life ahead of them and it should be a priority to protect them, both as individuals and for the country,” he said.
The problem is convincing these men to get tested. Pan Hongmen, a volunteer counsellor and testing project director for the China Rainbow Health Organisation, said her group had offered HIV tests for nearly a decade but many of those at risk were reluctant to come forward because they feared their sexuality it would be revealed.
“We visit popular hangouts for gay men, such as parks, bars and public baths to raise awareness of the need to get tested and to receive timely treatment if the test results come back positive,” Pan said.
Groups like China Rainbow don’t require people to show identity documents for the free tests but government agencies like the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention do. Still, things are changing – at least in the way the message is getting across. Government agencies and health organisations have realised the shortcomings of traditional approaches and are encouraging new ways to spread the Aids awareness word to a bigger crowd.
On a chilly winter’s day in Beijing, Blued – a popular Grindr-style smartphone app and online site for gay men – launched another testing centre, its fourth.
Geng Le, a former policeman who founded the site, said the company had centres across Beijing offering men quick, 20-minute HIV tests. The app also sends out regular messages to 1.5 million users on where to get tested and general information on HIV/Aids awareness. Last year alone about 3,000 gay men were tested at the centres.
“Gay people prefer our centres to the CDC or big hospitals. They like it here. It’s a company opened by gay people and promotes gay culture,” Geng said.
The centres’ test kits are provided by the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and those who test positive still need to go to the CDC for a blood test to confirm the result and sign up for free treatment.
Wu Zunyou said Blued was an important channel for relaying information.
“No government organisation can reach that number of people,” he said. “New media has become an important communication channel and helps us reach the groups we’re aiming for but can’t reach.”
UNAIDS China director Dr Catherine Sozi said the anonymous nature of getting information online was particularly important.
“Being gay is not illegal but the culture, the community and the society [in China] just does not allow them the freedom to express who they are and who they love,” Sozi said.
“That’s why something like this is good – it’s online and you don’t need to meet somebody. As long as you have a computer, a mobile phone, you can get information without seeing a health worker. They’ve got videos, images, and short, sharp messages. They encourage people to get tested without handing out booklets.
“We hope an online community such as Blued can help expand awareness to the areas that are difficult to reach, such as second or third-tier cities and even rural areas.”
