PROSTITUTES, PROSTITUTION AND STD HIV TRANSMISSION IN MAINLAND CHINA/

China's opening to the world has enabled massive social and economic t ransformations and the liberalization of many policies, but also the r ise of coincident social problems and diseases. A revival of wide-scal e female prostitution since the 1980s has now accelerated to a nationw ide dilemma. Prostitutes have long been considered to be reservoirs, i f not 'vectors' for the transmission of sexual diseases. A well establ ished STD epidemic in the last decade, plus the presence of growing HI V infections in China now, underscore the need to evaluate the prostit ute's role in STD and HIV propagation. This report examines unobtrusiv e data on female prostitutes in the People's Republic of China through an analysis of prison records from eight sexually segregated prisons (six in Sichuan Province and two in Guizhou Province), two female re-e ducation institutions, and arrest records for convicted prostitutes fr om four counties in Sichuan Province and Chengdu City (also in Sichuan ). Collectively, these data represent 2057 female prostitution cases, and span the years 1988-1990. Demographics are examined to enable a pr ofile of the prostitute as based on data reviewed, and this is contras ted to the stereotype of the prostitute as described in government pro paganda against prostitution. STD prevalence rates in the samples are examined and contrasted to two other studies on STDs in nonprostitutio n populations made available to the authors. Prostitute arrest records reveal a majority had active STD infection[s] at the time of their ap prehension, with gonorrhea being the most common bacterium; in many in stances, prostitutes also had a history of other sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, data examined support the notion of prostitution as an agent in STD transmission. Presence of HIV infection in prostitutes c ould not be corroborated through sampled records, nor could prostituti on itself be confirmed as an agent in HIV transmission at present. How ever, given the type of clients serviced by prostitutes in China, a pr ostitute's own risk of HIV infection is discussed. Control measures by the Chinese government to curb prostitution are examined at both nati onal and provincial levels. Questions are raised as to the effectivene ss of present tactics as adjunctive strategies in reducing STD infecti on and HIV risk in the prostitution population.