Since 1991 when the first HIV case reported in Jiangsu, the number of HIV infections has jumped to 2,000, 55 percent of which are migrant workers.
The number is relatively low when comparing with other HIV-ravaged provinces. Yet the proportion of infections through sex activities is rather high, reaching 40 percent, 10 percent higher than the average proportion for the whole country, says Yang Haitao of the provincial CDC.
He pointed out that most workers in private companies are in the prime of life, and far away from families. The chances for them to engage in high-risk behavior are huge. "If they don't know how to protect themselves, they could easily become the largest group that contracts HIV through unsafe sex," Yang says.
The Yangzhou-based Diyi Group of Jiangsu, a shareholding company noted for producing wires and cables, opens a special page of HIV prevention on the company's monthly magazine Diyi Tan, or Diyi Forum.
"The magazine is a stable preaching platform, but it's not enough," says Jiang Zhengchuan, deputy manager of general affairs of the Diyi Group.
"So, we train our workers in groups, and talk to them in person. At the training course, we address safe sex practices. Some 90 percent of our 802 employees are migrant workers aged between 30 and 40. You have to help them understand that how important their health is to their families and the company," Jiang says.
Employees are the creators of social wealth. Training migrant workers on HIV/AIDS prevention is beneficial for everyone, the workers, their employers, and the government.
"Only when workers are protected from HIV threat can the enterprise thrive and get stabilized," says Song Shaozhe of the SAIC.
The public-private alliance's HIV/AIDS prevention programs have reached to over 10,300 migrant workers in the five pilot provinces.
In order to have a better map of HIV/AIDS prevention among migrant workers in private industries nationwide, the SAIC has established its national liaison system as well.
"More than 300,000 people from local industry and commerce bureaus and offices at provincial and city levels have been chosen as liaisons," says Song, adding that their main responsibilities include delivering the country's HIV control policies, and carrying out the HIV prevention duties of industry and commerce bureaus."
Shi Kai of CHARTS notes, "To a great extent the SAIC's participation in the fight against HIV/AIDS is an important guarantee for the country eventually to win in this public health war."
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2008)