A Big Shift for China’s AIDS Fight: Condoms for Those Who Need Them
From Wall Street Journal:
AIDS, which has long thrived quietly on the fringes of Chinese society among drug addicts and recipients of tainted blood donations, is on the verge of going mainstream here.
One major cause is prostitution, a booming industry in China that has helped make sex the most common form of AIDS transmission in China.
China’s hopes of stopping the disease from turning into the country’s next health crisis may rest with the efforts of people like Guan Baoying, a 56-year-old activist who has defied standard government attitudes about high-risk groups such as prostitutes.
As a Beijing health bureaucrat until last year, Ms. Guan managed to convince the government to support regulations that require hotels to supply condoms to their guests — with the result that even in five-star hotels, condoms are a standard part of the minibar. Today, she leads the charge as the head of a nongovernment organization that helps fund outreach work with backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Origin: Nicholas Zamiska and Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal
