Chinese government blocks HIV prevention Web site for gay men

The Chinese government in April blocked a Web site that provides HIV prevention information to sexually active gay and bisexual men, Agence France-Presse reports. The site, previously available online at www.gaychinese.net, contained no sexually explicit or political content, according to site manager Damien Lu, a theater professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The site had been receiving 50,000 to 65,000 hits per day, the vast majority of which came from mainland China residents, Lu says. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which oversees Internet regulation, declined to comment on its decision to ban the site. Health officials say there may be as many as 10 million sexually active gay men in China, most of whom have little or no knowledge of how to prevent the spread of HIV. International AIDS experts estimate that there are as many as 1.5 million HIV-positive people in China.