Sexually Transmitted Disease/HIV and Heterosexual Risk Among Miners in Townships of

The HIV epidemics in some areas of Yunnan Province, southwestern China, are close to be-coming generalized, demanding the need for a better understanding of sexually transmitted disease (STD) and heterosexual HIV risk. While female heterosexual risk is captured by sen-tinel surveillance, less is known about clients of commercial sex workers and other subsets of men at increased risk of STD/HIV. A convenience sample of 232 miners in townships of Yunnan Province completed a questionnaire and provided specimens for STD/HIV testing. Relative prevalences of HIV, gonorrhea, and chlamydia among sexually experienced miners surveyed were 0.5 % (1/182), 0.5 % (1/182), and 9.3 % (17/182), respectively. Chlamydia seropos-itivity was significantly associated with receiving less education (p 0.03). Among all re-spondents, 9.4 % admitted to purchasing sex, 82.9 % had not used a condom in the last 6 months, and substantial gaps in knowledge about STD/HIV were apparent. Because preventing het-erosexual spread of HIV is crucial in this area of China to prevent a generalized epidemic, better understanding and designing low literacy interventions targeted at sex worker clients and similar subsets of high-risk migrants may be warranted. 84