HIV/AIDS Taxi Intervention

Observing that 63% of sex workers' clients in Yunnan Province, China report that they usually take taxis to the districts where they seek sex - and capitalising on the traditionally sociable relationship between drivers and their passengers - PSI is calling on taxi drviers in Gejiu to share reproductive health messages and promote healthy behaviours to clients.

Both face-to-face information exchange and printed materials feature prominently in this intervention, which uses the strategy of reaching out to clients in the moments before they will engage in sexual relations. Communication is used to provide the knowledge and concrete tools to, it is hoped, make those relations safer. Specifically, over a 6-month period, PSI/China trained 245 taxi drivers to take on the role of an HIV/AIDS educator. Armed with creative HIV/AIDS print materials prominently displayed in the taxi, drivers engage passengers in a discussion of the merits of HIV/AIDS prevention.

HIV/AIDS

PSI explains that in China, sexual transmission of HIV is increasing, with sex workers and their clients accounting for an increasing percentage of new HIV cases. This indicates a potential 'bridging' of the epidemic from high-risk groups into the general population. The combination of high-risk behaviour and low awareness of HIV/AIDS made sex workers and their clients particularly vulnerable. In Yunnan Province, the proportion of HIV infection due to sexual transmission accounted for 24.9% of total cases in 2004. Between 1994 and 2004, HIV prevalence among sex workers in Yunnan increased from 0% to 4%. Only 28% of the clients surveyed said they used condoms every time they have sex.

Evaluation results show that the intervention has increased HIV/AIDS knowledge and the willingness of taxi drivers to promote condoms. The percentage of drivers who knew that HIV cannot be transmitted by sharing food with someone grew from 19% to 77% over the first year of the programme.