AIDS experts: 'Mobile men with money' risky
By Luo Man (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-02 06:15

"Everybody has been assuming that the big problem is the migrant workers moving into the cities, but we disagree vehemently," said Manchester.

At the same time, it is the more affluent section of the community that is more likely to have unprotected sex or buy the services of prostitutes.

Most of the data available on mobile men with money is anecdotal and the fears among workers are educated guesses at this point, but it is difficult to ignore the numbers.

Household surveys carried out by UNAIDS and Futures over the past few years show that between 5 and 10 per cent of men in Asia buy sex.

According to UNAIDS's estimation, 20 per cent of some 6 million prostitutes in China do not use condoms.

Men in the upper 5 per cent of income earners are 33 times more likely to use prostitutes than people in the lowest 40 per cent, according to a study commissioned by the Futures Group and carried out by Horizons research.

At the same time, said Manchester, data has shown that men who are away from home more than five days a month are much, much more likely to use prostitutes.

"The propensity to use prostitutes shoots through the roof," he said.

Plenty of programmes are available for migrant workers but they are much less likely to have the funds to use prostitutes than business people out for meetings away from home.

At the end of a hard day's work, they want to be fed, they want a shower and they want to go to sleep, said Manchester.