Dear colleagues,

Forwarding a peer-reviewed article published in AIDS about an interesting
sociological phenomenon in China

April 8, 2005 (C) 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc. ISSN:
0269-9370

Authors: Tucker, Joseph D a; Henderson, Gail E a; Wang, Tian F
b; Huang, Ying Y c; Parish, William d; Pan, Sui M c; Chen, Xiang S e; Cohen,
Myron S a

Institution: From the (a)Infectious Disease Center at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
USA (b)Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China (c)Institute for Sexuality and Gender Research,
People's University, Beijing, China (d)Department of Sociology, University of
Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (e)China National STI Control Center, Nanjing,
China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College,
Nanjing, China.

Title: Surplus men, sex work, and the spread of HIV in
China.[Editorial]

Source: AIDS. 19(6):539-547, April 8, 2005.

Abstract:

While 70% of HIV positive individuals live in sub-Saharan Africa, it is widely
believed that the future of the epidemic depends on the magnitude of HIV spread
in India and China, the world's most populous
countries. China's 1.3 billion people are in the midst of significant social
transformation, which will impact future sexual disease transmission. Soon
approximately 8.5 million 'surplus men', unmarried and disproportionately poor
and migrant, will come of age in China's cities and rural areas. Meanwhile, many
millions of Chinese sex workers appear to represent a broad range of prices,
places, and related HIV risk behaviors.

Using demographic and behavioral data, this paper describes the combined effect
of sexual practices, sex work, and a true male surplus on HIV transmission.
Alongside a rapid increase in sexually
transmitted disease incidence across developed parts of urban China, surplus men
could become a significant new HIV risk group. The anticipated high sexual risk
among many surplus men and injecting drug use use among a subgroup of surplus
men may create bridging
populations from high to low risk individuals.

Prevention strategies that emphasize traditional measures - condom promotion,
sex education, medical training - must be reinforced by strategies which
acknowledge surplus men and sex workers.

Reform within female sex worker mandatory re-education centers and
site specific interventions at construction sites, military areas, or
unemployment centers may hold promise in curbing HIV/sexually transmitted
infections. From a sociological perspective, we believe that surplus men and sex
workers will have a profound effect on the future of HIV spread in China and on
the success or failure of future interventions.

C) 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
______________________
Greetings
Phi Huynhdo <huynhdophi@...>