OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to describe human immunodeficiency virus/sexual transmitted infections (HIV/STIs) related knowledge, attitudes, practice and the prevalence of HIV/STIs amongst miners.

METHODS

Two focus-group related discussions with a total number of 13 members including Community Advisory Boards (CAB) and 12 miners were conducted in a mining township in Yunnan province. Questionnaire surveys and HIV/STIs tests were conducted among 233 miners recruited by cluster sampling in two towns where the mines were located.

RESULTS

The average age of respondents was 28 year old with 82.8% of them younger than 35 year old. 95.3% of the respondents attended the education level of junior middle school. AIDS related knowledge among miners was low. The percentage of right answers to the routes of transmission was only 54.4%. The ratio of self-reported prostitutes visits was 9.0%. The prevalence rates of Neisseria gonrrhoeae, HIV and Chlamydia trachomatis were 0.4%, 0.4%and 8.2% respectively. The correlation between Chlamydia trachomatis infection and education (P = 0.0347) was significant, and so was that between Chlamydia trachomatis infection and marriage status (P = 0.032).

CONCLUSION

This study showed that the awareness of HIV/STIs prevention was limited and the rate of condom use was low, suggesting that miners needed to be viewed as a key population in HIV/STIs prevention and control.