Beijing opened its first clinic for gays on Thursday and will
provide free sexually transmitted disease (STD) and AIDS check-ups
and free treatment for STD carriers for a year.
The clinic was set up by Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group,
a non-governmental AIDS prevention organization, and the Disease
Prevention and Control Center of Chaoyang District of Beijing.
The clinic, with financial support from local health
authorities, will provide one-year of free check-ups for AIDS,
syphilis, gonorrhea and genital herpes. Free treatment is available
for each of these diseases except AIDS, said Xiao Dong, chief of
Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group.
People confirmed to be HIV carriers will be directed to national
free treatment programs and will be given free regular
examinations, said Xiao.
China's free AIDS treatments covers 25,000 patients in 623
counties in 31 provinces while special child treatment is carried
out on 516 patients below the age of 15 in 14 provinces.
The country has spent nearly 288 million yuan (US$36 million) on
free anti-AIDS treatment in the last three years, accounting for
14.3 percent of total anti-AIDS outlay, according to the health
ministry.
People need to log on to the volunteer group's website
(www.hivolunt.net) and fill in an application form before going to
the clinic.
Examinees will be treated anonymously and their privacy will be
respected, said Xiao. They will be given a mobile phone recharge
card worth 50 yuan (US$6.3) as compensation for their transport
costs.
The clinic, located in the disease prevention and control
center, will spread to two or three community hospitals soon in
order to provide more convenient and confidential services, said
Xiao.
"We will do our best to find funding so that we can continue our
free examination and treatment services a year from now," said
Xiao.
South China's Shenzhen city and east China's Nanjing city set up
homosexual clinics in February 2004.
China's first, and most recent, official figure on male
homosexuality was released in 2004, putting the total of gay men in
the country at between five and ten million.
The HIV infection rate is close to 1.5 percent among sexually
active homosexual men, said Zhang Beichuan, a professor with
Qingdao University's Medical School.
(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2006)
