'Voodoo folkloreism' surrounding AIDS in Chinese communities worldwide must be stamped out to curb soaring infection rates of up to 3,000 a day, an expert warned yesterday.
Ignorance is so rampant some Chinese cannot define AIDS apart from using the slang oy tse beng - love disease - Dr Michael Rekart of Canada's Ministry of Health said at a conference on AIDS.
'AIDS phobia is rampant and our Chinese communities are often guided . . . by voodoo Chinese folkloreism,' Dr Rekart said.
Speaking at a Hong Kong AIDS Foundation symposium at the Fourth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, he stressed these taboos would cost the Chinese community its younger generation.
Of 8,000 to 9,000 new HIV infections worldwide, up to 3,000 are seen in Chinese people, with the rate soaring in those aged 15 to 24.
Citing experience from Vancouver, he said: 'As alarming is the reality that many, many abortions . . . occur in Asian overseas students. These girls do not possess the ability to control their sexual lives, to access safe sex, to even just say 'no'.' No set of family values is powerful enough to resist the spread of AIDS, he warned.
Provisional legislator Dr Leong Che-hung said even those who worked in the AIDS field found it difficult to talk about sex openly.
'Sex remains a taboo area in Hong Kong . . . some may try to muddle through the task of education by being circumstantial,' he said. 'Interestingly people in Hong Kong may appear to be Westernised in their style of living but when it comes to moral issues, especially on promiscuity and commercial sex, traditional attitudes of condemnation are dominant.' The result is AIDS workers themselves may lack skills 'and even the right word', Dr Leong said.
A report released at the conference yesterday by the Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic group showed that while heterosexual infection is plateauing in countries such as Burma and Thailand, it is increasing in Hong Kong and China.
Previous studies in Hong Kong have revealed consistent ignorance about the spread of AIDS, with 70 per cent believing it can be spread through kissing, and 40 per cent via a toilet seat.