Sex orgies, the country's latest fad, are speeding up the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people, health officials said yesterday.
"Orgies have accelerated the spread of the disease," said Lin Ting (林頂), deputy general-director of the Center for Disease Control.
Unprotected sex, multiple sex partners and drug abuse have also contributed to the spread of the deadly virus.
In recent years, drug users who share needles have emerged as a new route of infection. According to the center, while 64 people were infected with HIV/AIDS through dirty needles last year, the figure soared to 165 this year.
"The rate jumped almost threefold in two years," Lin said.
At private sex orgies, where drug use is rampant, the virus has made inroads into a wider population. In an orgy busted by police in Taipei early this month, people were caught sharing needles for using drugs. Fifteen of the 29 participants were found to be HIV-positive. The center has since registered and monitored eight HIV carriers. The seven remaining people were informed they had the virus by police.
A high infection rate was also found at another sex party broken up by Taipei police at the beginning of the year. Some 28 of the 92 participants at the party were HIV-positive.
A spate of recent orgies reported in the media have stirred fears of a broader outbreak among young people. If unsafe sex parties become a popular lifestyle choice, health officials warned of disaster.
"A vast majority of young people who are HIV positive do not know that they are infected, and few engaging in sex know the HIV status of their partners," said Tsai Shu-feng (蔡淑芬), the chief of the center's AIDS section.
Young males are at the center of the pandemic in terms of transmission, impact and the potential to curb it. Thirty-seven percent of the 6,152 Taiwanese living with HIV/AIDS are gay men. Most of them are in their 20s or 30s.
The center urged sexually active men to use condoms at sex parties.
"We are not labeling the group," Lin said.
"From a preventative point of view, what we care about is their safety during intercourse, not their sexual orientation. We hope they can protect themselves and protect their partners," Lin said.
According to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Control Act (後天免疫缺乏症候群防治條例), HIV-infected individuals who knowingly pass the disease to others face a sentence of up to seven years in prison. Since ratification of the act in 1990, no one has been charged under the law.
Despite the police crackdown on sex parties, health workers said that treating the patients as criminals does not help rein in the disease. Those who are arrested at sex parties tend to plunge themselves deeper into drug addiction and reckless behavior.
"[Partygoers] feel ashamed when they are exposed by police and the media," said Zhuang Ping (莊苹), counselor at the Taipei City STD Control Center.
According to Zhuang, those arrested at sex parties and who have HIV/AIDS were forced to squat down naked in the apartments during police raids -- not for police interrogation purposes -- but for the media to take pictures.
Despite sex parties being major venues for HIV/AIDS infection, few properly address the attitude and behaviors that underline the trend, experts said.
"The question is not how many and how often HIV-positive people go to sex parties," said Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), chair of Taiwan AIDS Society, "the question is, beneath the sensationalized news, can we understand why these types of parties have become popular among young people?"
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