That's the goal of a five-year study, bankrolled by the National Institutes of Health , designed to help lower HIV infections among China's "female sex workers," who are referred to in the study as "FSWs. Researchers will visit houses of ill repute -- a whole hamlet of harlots -- to collect data on prostitutes and pimps and madams, referred to as "gatekeepers" in the study's sterile abstract.
The study's director says the information gained from the study will then be used to tailor HIV prevention programs for the bawds from Beihai, a coastal tourist town in Guangxi province, which has the third-highest HIV infection rate of China's 22 provinces. The first prong of the Chinese intervention program involves "gatekeeper training," which means teaching pimps and madams to enhance the culture of safe sex in their brothels.
The study's director, Dr. Xiaoming Li of Wayne State University in Michigan, then hopes to convince the prostitutes to drink less and use condoms more while they're on the job. The U. Recent government programs to distribute condoms to prostitutes have helped address the problem, but they haven't solved it. Li, who did not respond to calls and e-mails from FOXNews. I think the findings will benefit the American people, too.
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