HIV/AIDS program helps China's migrant workers abandon stigma, risk behaviors

BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A 32-month HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Program targeting China's migrant workers has resulted in "positive changes", said sources with the program initiator the International Labor Organization (ILO) Tuesday.

The program has raised the condom-use among participants from 49 percent to 73 percent, said the program's Chief Technical Advisor Richard Howard, citing the program's impact survey results.

About 94 percent of the respondents said they understand that the virus is not spread through casual contact, up from 38 percent in a baseline survey, the impact survey showed. And 84 percent reported a willingness to work with colleagues living with HIV, up from 40 percent in the baseline survey.

Howard, however, noted the survey was based on samples mainly in high risks sectors of migrant workers, such as the construction and coal mine sectors, so the results could not represent all the country's 130 million migrant population.