For a long time, AIDS has been a neglected disease in China, better hushed-up than brought squarely into the open. While those attitudes have changed, recent efforts have still gone on the assumption that the vectors of transmission are through IV drug use, illegal blood harvesting and through low-income migrant workers spreading the disease from countryside to city.

However, a new study publicized in Xinhua by the Futures Group suggests that the main target should not be lower income people, but rather, the wealthy. This demographic the Futures Group calls "Mobile Men with Money". It is a perverse fact that some men actually pay 60% more to a prostitute, according to the study, for the pleasure of unprotected sex, thereby exposing both parties to a high risk of infection. It is an unfortunate thing that AIDS is a disease that would not immediately remove such a Darwin-awards nominee immediately from the gene pool, but would rather likely take many more people with him.

Some other interesting stats from this study:

Most of the data available on mobile men with money is anecdotal and the fears among workers are educated guesses at this point, but it is difficult to ignore the numbers.

Household surveys carried out by UNAIDS and Futures over the past few years show that between 5 and 10 per cent of men in Asia buy sex.

According to UNAIDS's estimation, 20 per cent of some 6 million prostitutes in China do not use condoms.

Men in the upper 5 per cent of income earners are 33 times more likely to use prostitutes than people in the lowest 40 per cent, according to a study commissioned by the Futures Group and carried out by Horizons research.

At the same time, said Manchester, data has shown that men who are away from home more than five days a month are much, much more likely to use prostitutes.

"The propensity to use prostitutes shoots through the roof," he said.