CRI听力:HIV/AIDS on the rise among young Chinese

The theme of this year's World AIDS Day is "Hands up for #HIVprevention," a fitting call for China given a fast rise of infections among the country's young people.

Official figures show there have been around 96,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS during the first nine months of the year.

Among them, 2,000 are from people between the ages of 18 and 22.

While the number is a relatively small portion of the total, Wang Lu, a researcher with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, says certian trends behind the figure are worrisome.

"In recent years, we have seen fast growing numbers of new cases among the younger generations – much faster than the infection rate for the overall population. Among the reported cases, the male to female ratio is an astonishing 41:1. More than three-quarters of the new male patients are between the ages of 18 to 22, and a majority were infected through same-sex sexual activities. "

Wang Lu says compounding the problem is that many new young patients say they do not use protection when having sex.

This is prompting health experts and officials in China to call for more sexual health education for young people.

Just ahead of this year's World AIDS Day, ten primary and secondary schools in Beijing have launched programs to provide their students with sexual and psychological counseling.

Zhao Fangzhou is a middle school teacher at one of the schools.

"We provide counseling on both adolescent psychological and physiological development. That includes sexual education, sexual morality, self-protection for girls, and some social topics related to sexual matters. We also talk about AIDS prevention so our students can be psychologically prepared when they encounter these topics."

The new program in the Beijing schools is part of the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth, which was initiated 10 years ago by Chinese authorities.

The latest figures from the Chinese CDC also show that sexual transmission has become the leading cause of HIV/AIDS infections in China, overtaking blood transfusions and drug-related injections.

Wang Lu from the Chinese CDC says health officials are also adjusting their prevention campaigns based on the new trends.

"Based on our observations, we have put an emphasis of our prevention work on sexual transmissions. Around 30% of the new HIV/AIDS cases this year were transmitted through male homosexual activities, while 60% were through heterosexual encounters. So sexual transmission is responsible for more than 90% of the new cases."　

As of September of this year, 654,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in China.