Young Uyghur men pass through a night market in Hotan in northwest China's Xinjiang region, April 16, Pidakar, who is in his mids said left China several weeks ago with his family to seek a better and safer future for his children in the United States.
Roughly 13, cases were in Ili Yili Kazakh Autonomous prefecture, 10, in Urumqi, 7, in Aksu prefecture, 5, in Kashgar prefecture and 2, in Hotan and Turpan Tulufan prefectures. Before , most HIV-infected people had been concentrated in northern part of Xinjiang, including the cities of Ghulja Yining and Urumqi, and contracted the disease from infected needles they used to inject heroin, he said.
But since , the HIV epidemic increased dramatically as a sexually transmitted disease in southern Xinjiang, especially in Aksu, Kashgar and Hotan, where now more than 90 percent of those infected are ethnic Uyghurs. Chinese riot police keep watch on Uyghur residents near a mosque in Urumqi following ethnic violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, July 10, The riots, which began as a protest in Urumqi, escalated into violent attacks mainly targeting Han Chinese.
Nevertheless, some counties in southern Xinjiang still have only one employee who is responsible for HIV prevention work, and most material on the subject is published in Chinese, not the Uyghur language, he said.
The campaign followed several violent incidents in the region, including a May 22 bombing at a market in Urumqi that killed 43 people, including the four attackers. But when Sadir and a local Uyghur friend visited a street dominated by Han immigrants in Hotan city, he could not believe his eyes when he saw hundreds of Han prostitutes standing in the doorways of beauty salons, massage rooms, bathrooms and cafes, beckoning in different Chinese dialects and accents to young men who passed by.
