Students require sex education

The drastic increase in the number of HIV infections among students in China in recent years means urgent efforts are needed to raise their awareness of the virus and the ways it is transmitted.

According to the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, the number of annually reported HIV infections among young Chinese students, males in particular, has quadrupled in the past seven years. More than 3,400 students have been reported as HIV-positive this year, compared with 779 in 2008. A majority of these infected students are males aged 18 to 22, and nearly 81 percent contracted the virus through gay sex.

A document issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in August also confirmed this worrying tendency and cited the lack of information in campuses and weak self-protection awareness among students as the main reasons for the growing number of infections.