Southern China province offers free HIV tests to gay men

In an effort to identify HIV-positive people in China's Guangdong Province and slow the spread of the disease in the region that includes the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, health officials are now offering free HIV antibody tests to gay men and members of other high-risk groups like sex workers, Agence France-Presse reports. The provincial Center for Disease Control's AIDS institute is offering free HIV testing and risk-reduction counseling to all gay men in the region. The province also soon plans to launch a syphilis prevention and treatment program targeting high-risk groups, including gay men, after recording more than 9,000 new syphilis cases in 2003.