Group at higher risk of HIV infection, study says

China's transgender female prostitutes are among the most vulnerable to HIV infection in the country, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society.

More than 16 percent of the 220 transgender female prostitutes in the study were HIV positive, much higher than the national average of 0.2 percent among female prostitutes, it said. The national average of HIV prevalence stands at less than 0.06.

Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and Prevention at the China Center for Disease Control, estimated that there are less than 10,000 transgender female prostitutes.