Early intervention crucial in anti-AIDS battle, experts say

Earlier this month, Peter Reis, senior vice-president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in the United States, visited gay men who frequent Mudanyuan Park in north Beijing. Free HIV tests were being offered by mobile HIV-testing vehicles sponsored by the foundation in partnership with the YouAn Hospital.

A young man approached one of the vans for a rapid test conducted with an oral swab. The result, which was ready in about 15 minutes, showed he was HIV-negative.

"I come here almost every week to meet friends and usually have a test," he said. "I play around too much so I need regular HIV screening."

According to Cheng Xiang, who heads a community-based anti-AIDS organization, sexually active gay men should take the test every three months. "But we never turn down a request for a test," he said.

Reis said it's good for people to actively seek HIV tests because one's health status is an individual right. In Los Angeles, where the foundation is based, five mobile testing vans travel around the streets providing free rapid tests.

To improve public access to its services, the foundation also provides tests at facilities such as stores and pharmacies. In the US, more than 80 percent of people with HIV/AIDS have been diagnosed, but it is estimated that 32 percent of people with the disease in China remain undiagnosed.

The first step to containing the disease in China is to identify the patients and provide them with timely treatment, according to Xiao Dong, who heads the mobile-testing team at Mudanyuan Park. Also, a higher proportion of patients in China are diagnosed late, which means they miss the "golden period" for treatment.

The team now has five electric minivans in the Chinese capital, manned by 15 volunteers. They provide free tests, particularly to young gay men, and help to link those in need with follow-up treatment, Xiao said.

The vans travel to areas frequented by gay men, such as bars, bathhouses and parks, to provide intervention and care. "Some of the volunteers speak English, so foreigners are welcome to come for free tests too," Xiao said.

Testing kits that use oral swabs and blood samples can usually provide a result in 15 minutes, he added. Follow-up counseling and treatment referrals are given to those who test positive.

China's gay men population has been hard hit by HIV/AIDS. "They don't like going to government-run clinics for tests because the government workers don't know the community well," he said.

Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and Prevention, said that to better provide tests and intervention for the high-risk group, the health authorities have increased cooperation with community-based organizations and outsource AIDS-control services to them.

He welcomed the pioneering initiative: "It will help to supplement the current testing methods and reach out to the most-susceptible more actively."

Reis said the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is now planning to bring more testing vehicles to Beijing.