BEIJING, Oct 10 (AFP) - The once-conservative city of Beijing plans to set up 1,000 condom vending machines in a bid to curb the spread of AIDS, state media said Sunday.
The machines will be installed in hotels, bars and university campuses and sell "quality-guaranteed" products at one yuan (12 US cents) a piece, the Xinhua news agency reported.
As a novelty, the vending machines will also appear in construction sites, in an apparent attempt to reach out to the millions of migrant workers who crowd the capital.
It is believed that migrant workers, who are away from their families for months or years on end, are among the top customers of local prostitutes.
While setting up the new machines, municipal authorities will also launch a month-long drive to renovate 1,700 existing vending machines that are mostly either broken or empty, Xinhua said.
The Chinese government has kicked off an ambitious anti-AIDS campaign calling for condom use to spread to at least 50 percent of the country's high-risk populations by the end of next year.
The World Health Organization estimates at least 1.5 million people in the Western Pacific region are living with HIV/AIDS, with China accounting for two thirds of the number.
Data indicates HIV infections in sex workers and intravenous drug users were increasing in several countries i the region, including China.
Rates of HIV prevalence in intravenous drug users range from 20 percent in south China's Guangdong province to as high as 89 percent in western Xinjiang region.