A Study Of The Vulnerability Of HIV Infection Among Cross-border Marriages In Tengchong County

Objective:Understand the HIV-infected status, characteristics of demographic, the fundamental state about HIV-related knowledge and the social network among cross-border marriages before and after the crossing the border in Tengchong. Analyze the vulnerability of HIV/AIDS. Explore the effective strategies and measures to prevent the HIV prevalence among cross-border marriages. And Provide the foundational data for evaluating the measures preventing and curing HIV/AIDS.Methods:In cooperation with the CDC and Maternal and Child Health Institute of Tengchong, the cross-border marriages population were token the HIV antibody test using the most commonly ELISA method.The place of investigation was decided and the questionnaire was consummated by using some qualitative methods such as referring literatures and documents,discussion of professors and the field survey. The census of family questionnaire was carried out in the Tengchong city which had eighteen townships and eight hundred twenty one cross-border marriage families. At the same time,stratified cluster random sampling was used to collected cross-border marriages from thirteen townships, which were carried out the cross-sectional survey of social network, including Myanmar wife and Chinese husband before and after crossing the border.Results and Discoveries:(1) The cross-border marriages explore in the high risk of infecting HIV. The rate of HIV infection in cross-border marriage population is higher than the local general population in Tengchong County. Among them, the HIV positive rate of Myanmar nationals wife is 2.0%, the Chinese husband is 1.4%. There is no difference between them.(2) The level of AIDS vulnerability is high among cross-border marriages. First, the characteristics of cross-border marriages as the typical socially marginalized group determine the lack of capacity dealing with AIDS. Most marriages base on the fact without the law protection. And the people has low level education,45.1% Myanmar wives were not received education, only a quarter of Chinese husband finished nine-years study. The age of cross-border marriages is mostly concerned in the sexually active phase. And nearly three-quarters are in the economic hardship and more than half are in the food shortage.Rate of AIDS awareness is very low in cross-border marriages, more than twenty percents respondents had never heard of AIDS. There is a serious misunderstanding in the people who have heard of the AIDS, such as the mistake rate of "whether the mosquito bites could transmits AIDS" is 19.2%, the mistake rate of mother to child transmission is 15.0%.(3) The exogenous vulnerability of AIDS increased among cross-border marriages. Currently, the characteristics of Myanmar wife's social network include small scale, low heterogeneity and high homogenizes. Compared with the cross before, there is little change in the total size of social network, but the size of emotional and instrumental social network increased. Meanwhile, the proportion of relations has also changed.At present, the Chinese husband's social network is also a small-scale, low heterogeneity and high homogenizes and high density. However, the overall capacity of getting resource is better than Myanmar wife. Not only the size of network than foreign spouse. More importantly, the distribution of people education is more reasonable. And compared with the Chinese husband in Myanmar, current networks are more conducive to access resources and change their status.(4) At present, there are three factors which affect the social network size of Burmese wife, including "Understanding the Chinese character", "the social network scale of Chinese husband", "the level of the local economy".(5) In the aspect of form in AIDS health education,80.1% of the population choose the television as a mass media to carry out the AIDS health education; beyond this,44.3% of the cross-border family believed the rural doctors as the main force in the AIDS advocacy activities; but the number of accepting the traditional method is low,such as training, seminars, cultural performances, etc.conclusion:The cross-border marriage population in Tengchong city has many characteristic which are as follows. The rate of positive HIV is high,the level of education of them is low, the income is not high, the knowledge about how to prevent and cure HIV is not comprehensive, the scale of social network is small, the heterogeneity is low,the homogenizes and density is high. The person among cross-border marriage population not only faced the AIDS-related high risk, but also seriously lack of response capabilities. The prevention of AIDS is urgent among cross-border marriages. We suggested that the work of monitoring AIDS among these population. At the same time, under the government leading and taking well use of the characteristics of social network, to improve the capacity of getting resources and enhance the capacity of dealing with AIDS.For the high risk of AIDS and lack of response capacity among cross-border marriages, there are some following suggestions. First of all, fully understand the urgency of AIDS prevention and control of cross-border marriages. Secondly, recognize the increased vulnerability of AIDS after the geographical changes. Thirdly, carry out health education combined with cross-border marriages'characteristics for the endogenous AIDS vulnerable to improve AIDS knowledge and skill. Finally, organize a series activities expanding the social network scale and the scope of occupational interaction to improve the resource assimilating capacity and reduce the exogenous vulnerability of AIDS.