Gay men HIV cases shoot up in Shanghai

New Delhi, June 21 (ANI): Over the recent years, the incidence of HIV/AIDS cases involving men who have sex with men has increased fivefold in Shanghai, report medical experts.

Following the comments, which were made at a science forum in Beijing, Shanghai is gearing up to launch an intervention and education campaign to fight HIV transmission through unsafe sex, the Friday's Shanghai Daily reported.

Back in 2005, the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention had started a study of surveying gay males to find out more about their sexual behavior and to discover their HIV/AIDS or syphilis infection rate, reports The China Daily.

The incidence of syphilis from 2005 to 2007 remained around 12 to 13 percent, while HIV/AIDS increased every year. The incidence rate was 1.5 percent in 2005, 4.1 percent in 2006 and 7.5 percent in 2007, according to the survey.

Data from 2008 is not yet available. According to the survey, more than 60 percent of the respondents had more than one male sexual partner.

"The increase in HIV/AIDS cases involving male-to-male sex is a challenge for almost all Asian countries," said Kang Laiyi, an AIDS expert at the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Society is becoming more tolerant of gays and bisexuals, and intervention and education for this group should be intensified," the expert added. (ANI)