China's largest city begins distributing condoms and providing clean needles

To combat rising HIV infection rates, government officials in Chongqing, China's most populous city, have begun distributing free condoms and selling clean needles to injection-drug users, Agence France-Presse reports. Health officials in the city plan to distribute 1 million condoms each year and will target give-away efforts at groups hit hardest by HIV, like prostitutes and their clients. Officials in Guangdong province, which includes Chongqing, have also begun selling clean needles at certain pharmacies in response to government statistics showing that 53% of the injection-drug users in the province are infected with HIV.