Sentinel surveillance of AIDS among men who have sex with men in Taiyuan, Shanxi, 2012

Objective To understand the characteristics of HIV/AIDS related high-risk behaviors, AIDS related knowledge awareness and infection status of HIV and STDs among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, and provide evidence for the effective intervention and prevention of AIDS. Methods According to the national AIDS surveillance protocol(2012 edition), the questionnaire survey was conducted among MSM and blood samples were taken from them to detect the antibodies to HIV, treponema pallidum and hepatitis C virus. Results Totally 254 MSM were surveyed in 2012. The HIV infection rate was 13.78%, the syphilis infection rate was 10.23% and the hepatitis C virus infection rate of was 0.79%.The awareness rate of AIDS related knowledge was 90.55%. In these MSM,78.74% had unprotected anal sex with men in the past six months and the condom use rate at each sex was 44.50%, in which 4.50% had commercial anal sex. Totally 30.31% of the MSM had sex with women and the condom use rate at each sex was 41.56%. Conclusion Due to the high prevalence of high risk behaviors, the infection rate of HIV/STD was high among the MSM in Taiyuan. It is urgent to conduct effective intervention to control the spread of AIDS in this population.