CORRESPONDENCE

摘要

We read with interest the recent article by Shaw and colleagues regarding travel to China for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games.1 While the authors should be commended for their excellent review and travel advice, we feel that the issue of HIV/AIDS and its relationship with the commercial sex workers and travelers has not been adequately emphasized.It is well known that travelers are at risk of acquiring HIV in developing countries where local prevalence of the disease is high and exposure to commercial sex workers occurs.2 Although official statistics report fewer than 650,000 Chinese with HIV/AIDS, this is believed to be a major underestimate.3 The disease is becoming increasingly concentrated in sex workers and injecting drug users, with a current surplus of males and the ready availability of commercial sex expected to have a profound impact on its future spread.4 China has a large itinerant workforce of at least 120 million3 who migrate routinely in search of work. HIV-related sexual risk factors are known to exist within the migrating demographic5 and it is reasonable to assume that a certain proportion will travel to Beijing seeking work during the Olympic period. A large number of commercial sex workers can also be expected to migrate to Beijing in search of customers attending, viewing ar participating in, the Olympics.