Innovation and integrated application of prevention and control measures for sexual transmission of HIV among high-risk groups in China

This research project was led by the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention of the China CDC, and completed jointly with Fudan University and other organizations and agencies. It won the third prize at the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Awards in 2020.

As sex is the most common way of HIV/AIDS transmission, controlling sexual behavior prevents the HIV/AIDS from becoming epidemics. Sex workers constitute a special group of "amplifiers" for HIV/AIDS. Therefore, controlling transmission among this group is the key to controlling HIV/AIDS transmission.

The project developed three prevention strategies. First, the use of multidisciplinary sciences, including epidemiology, sociology, behavioral science, the internet, and self-testing. Second, the use of treatment as prevention. Third, through streamlining of diagnosis and treatment for patients infected with HIV/AIDS the annual fatality rate of newly diagnosed patients dropped by 62 percentage points.

The application of these research findings has kept the HIV/AIDS infection rate among sex workers below 1 percent, and with antiviral treatment for the prevention of HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission transformed into a national strategy in a timely manner, HIV/AIDS transmission through sexual means among couples was reduced from 2.6 percent to 0.8 percent, a reduction of 68 percentage points. This project has helped keep China's HIV infection rate at only 1/7 of the global infection rate.