Large proportion of public ignorant of AIDS: survey ( 2003-12-01 10:36) (People's Daily)
Some 19.9 percent of Chinese
people say they have never heard of AIDS or HIV and only 4.7 percent has ever
had an HIV test, according to a recent survey.
The survey, by Futures Group Europe and Horizon Market Research, showed that
96.2 percent of city residents surveyed and 82.6 percent surveyed in towns had
heard of AIDS and HIV while the ratewas only 75.1 percent in rural areas.
However, only 13.4 percent of the surveyed knew all three routes of HIV
infection, that is, blood, sex and mother to child transmission, and in rural
areas the percentage reduced to 7.1 percent.
The survey was done by Horizon Market Research from August to September this
year covering 3,968 people sampled from six cities including Beijing, Shanghai
and Guangzhou, seven towns and eight rural areas in six provinces like north
China's Hebei Province, east China's Fujian Province and southwest China's
Sichuan Province.
It showed that just 21.4 percent of the surveyed knew HIV can be transmitted
through sex, compared with 73.3 percent who were aware that HIV can be
transmitted through sharing needles.
According to the Ministry of Health, China now has about 840,000 HIV-positive
population and 80,000 AIDS patients. Most of them are infected through sharing
needles, infected blood or sexual transmission.
Zeng Yi, chairman of the Chinese Foundation for Prevention of STD and AIDS,
told Xinhua Wednesday that Chinese society, government, non-government
organizations and citizens, should invest more money in educating people about
AIDS.
"If every Chinese donates two yuan (about 24 US cents), we can promise that
in three years 6 million Chinese will be spared from the virus because of the
timely and effective education," Zeng said.
The survey showed some 78 percent of the surveyed felt safe andat low risk of
catching HIV. Only 0.9 percent said they were exposed to the virus.
Only 5.7 percent planned to have an HIV test or another test inthe future.
Although only 1.8 percent of the surveyed admitted having sex with more than
one person in the past four weeks, some 20.7 percent said they never use condoms
when having sex with a non-regular partner and only 1.9 percent said they always
used condoms.
"People are still inclined to look on condoms as tools for birth control
instead of something to guard their health," said Wang Zhenxiu, assistant social
marketing manager with the Futures Group Europe, which is operating a condom
marketing program under the China-UK HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project in
southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
In the survey, 20.3 percent people linked the word condom to protection from
pregnancy and 16.4 percent linked it to sex but only 2.6 percent to protecting
from AIDS and sex-transmitted diseases (STD).
The survey showed that after years of AIDS education, the stigma against
HIV-positive people had eased. Some 66.1 percent knew that it was impossible to
get HIV by sharing a meal and 50.1 percent said they would care for HIV-positive
family members.
But still some 77.2 percent of the surveyed did not agree that an HIV
infected colleague should be allowed to continue to work.
