The incidence of HIV/AIDS among Beijing’s drug users is in decline but the city’s gay community remains the most at-risk group, a local health official said on Friday.

He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing center for disease control and prevention (CDC), said that based on figures for the first seven months, 1.5 percent of the city’s drug users are HIV positive, compared with 5 percent in 2001.

In comparison, 5 percent of gay men in the capital are HIV positive, while 0.5 percent of unlicensed prostitutes are infected with the virus, He said, without giving figures for 2001.

“More than 43 percent of all newly reported cases are attributed to people having unprotected sex, and gay men are the most at risk,” he said.

Research carried out over the past three years has shown that less than 50 percent of gay men use condoms, so promoting better health awareness among them is a major task, he said.
During the first seven months of the year, 563 new HIV cases were reported in Beijing, 118 of which involved local people and the rest migrant workers, He said.

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