TURKEY QUARANTINES PWA
Turkey quarantined a transsexual prostitute with AIDS Nov. 9.
She had worked in a state-approved brothel and tested positive during a routine examination. The authorities believe she may have had sex with up to 5,000 people since her last HIV test.
Turkey opened its state-supervised brothels to gay, transvestite and transsexual prostitutes a year ago in an effort to stem unregulated prostitution and the spread of HIV.
SOME GAYS CHOOSE
Some gays say they choose to be gay, according to a new survey by ID Research for Britain's Channel 4 News.
Five and a half percent of lesbians and 2.4 percent of gay men said they decided to be gay while 65.5 percent of gay men and 46.3 percent of lesbians believe they were born gay.
More than 10,000 people were questioned.
The survey also found that gay men are more likely to be construction workers, policemen or firemen than they are to be hairdressers or preachers.
WEB SITE CALLS
BOYCOTT OF WEB SITE
Martin Nel of the South African gay Web site www.q.co.za has called a boycott of the Web site allafrica.com for publishing "homophobic rubbish passed off as journalism."
He plans to file complaints with the Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Complaints Commission alleging that the material violates South Africa's constitutional ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation.
GAY TV SHOW
DEBUTS IN FRANCE
French media giant Lagardere has launched the nation's first gay TV show on its Canal Jimmy cable network.
"Good As You" debuted Nov. 11. The magazine format offers news, politics and investigative reporting along with segments on fashion, art and music.
CHINA HOLDS FIRST
AIDS CONFERENCE
More than 2,700 delegates attended China's first AIDS conference Nov. 12-15 in Beijing.
Experts believe that 600,000 of China's 1.26 billion citizens are HIV-positive, infected via contaminated blood products, prostitutes, dirty needles or unprotected gay sex. Independent doctors say the number is dramatically higher.
Officials want to reduce new infections from the current 67 percent per year to 10 percent.
"China faces a very serious epidemic," said Vice Health Minister Yin Dakui.
Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, added, "Over the next two decades, what happens in China will determine the global burden of HIV/AIDS."
The director of the National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control, Shen Jie, said the cost of a year's worth of anti-HIV drugs needs to drop from $9,600 to $350 or China will have no choice but to violate drug manufacturers' patents.
"If we can get the price down to a price acceptable to us we won't have to take the next step," she said.
