Chicago Group Helps China Drop Denials About AIDS

China finally has taken the step of admitting it is battling an AIDS crisis, even inviting a group of Chicago health experts to offer advice. The challenge for the Chicagoans, as they quickly learned during a recent visit, would be to get the Chinese to overcome their political and cultural squeamishness about how HIV is spread. For much of the meeting, it did not look good, particularly regarding homosexual transmission of HIV. One government official at the meeting in Hangzhou, a vibrant industrial hub of 1.7 million people, insisted the city could not possibly have more than 20 gay men.

Yet Keith Waterbrook of the Howard Brown Health Center stayed upbeat. By the end of the day, the Chinese made an important decision to visit Chicago, where they will see Howard Brown workers reach out to some of those most at risk -- the type of people who, in China, live in the shadows. "We'll bring three or four prevention people from here to Chicago, and they are going to be in the streets," Waterbrook explained. "They are going to be working with prostitutes and bathhouses. They are going to be getting the whole thing."

AIDS prevention efforts have been slow in China, where a conservative culture and Marxist ideology have prevented the government from thinking progressively about social problems. The government prefers to keep bad news buried and is uncomfortable giving private organizations the power to operate. Sensitive subjects associated with the transmission of AIDS -- including homosexual sex, prostitution and intravenous drug use -- are taboo.

Separating the work of the health bureau from social taboos or legal questions flummoxed the Chinese all through their meetings with the Howard Brown people. They were fascinated, but also appalled, that Howard Brown workers knew there were approximately 30,000 prostitutes in Chicago and that they could develop relationships with people committing illegal acts.

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