Fridae

More than 200 gay men received a free check-up in a private Beijing hospital on Sunday, the first of such a project in the Chinese capital. The Xinhua news agency reported on Monday that the clinic was organised by Chaoyang - the Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group - a non-governmental group.

The men who turned up - most of whom were in their 30's - were given a personal number and a password to the Chaoyang Web site so they could easily retrieve their test results. The check-up mainly targeted sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS

Information about the free medical examinations was posted on a website for gays, www.hivolunt.net, a week ago, according to Xiao Dong, chief of the volunteer group.

Safe-sex booklets were also distributed and psychologists were on hand for anyone needing help at the venue.

Organisers said they were encouraged by the turnout and plan to distribute 50,000 "rainbow cards" in gay clubs, entitling the holders to four boxes of condoms each month.

In 2004, China put the total of gay men in the country at between five and ten million - a number western activists call "extreme low." Some Western AIDS groups estimate the number closer to 48 million.

The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, has warned that up to 10 million people in China could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also announced this week that it is currently soliciting opinions on the country's first government-initiated program to eradicate HIV/AIDS among homosexual men by enlisting the help of its gay population.

According to a China Daily report, gay men - who constitute 7.3 percent of the total HIV/AIDS sufferers in China estimated to number 650,000 in 2005 - will be the first group asked to the join the effort. Statistics from the CDC show that the virus has been increasingly spreading among gay men and the number of sufferers has doubled since 2004.

The project to be implemented by May is aimed at containing the spread of the virus which is said to be a growing threat among China's 20 million gay men.