The number of students in Shanghai with HIV is rising, with homosexual sex the main reason for its spread, city health officials said yesterday.
The Health and Family Planning Commission reported 92 students with HIV infection this year so far, a rise of 31.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
They accounted for 4.7 percent of the city's new HIV/AIDS cases and 88 percent had caught the virus through gay sex.
By November 20, Shanghai had registered 1,975 people infected with HIV, including 743 AIDS patients, and there had been 151 deaths.
The number of new HIV/AIDS cases was 10.8 percent more than the same period last year.
"Though the number of HIV infections had been rising in Shanghai for years, we have managed to control the growth to around 10 percent a year," said Wang Panshi, the commission's vice director. "The epidemic situation of HIV/AIDS is still in a low prevalence in Shanghai."
Wang added: "Though the speed of growth is slow, experts estimate that, across the country, 30 percent of HIV/AIDS cases are not detected. So we must work harder to identify these cases and give proper direction and care. In addition to the health authority, social organizations are important, especially among young people and homosexuals."
Men make up 91.3 percent of HIV/AIDS cases this year, the commission reported, with the majority aged between 18 and 54.
Sex was the main channel for the spread of infection, it said, accounting for 97.5 percent of new cases, with gay sex responsible for 66 percent of that number.
"Drug addicts, prostitutes and homosexuals are the main targets of AIDS prevention and control, as we keep promoting education and distributing condoms among these people," Wang said.
"Intervention in mother-to-infant infection is also an important task. So far, HIV testing has covered almost all pregnant women in Shanghai for early intervention and control," he said.
Shanghai detected 21 pregnant women with the HIV virus this year. All have received in-time intervention and guidance, Wang said.
To further promote HIV awareness and detecting HIV carriers, Shanghai is offering free AIDS consultation and HIV testing in 164 district and city-level medical facilities and centers for disease prevention and control. Consultation and testing have been widely promoted to neighborhood health centers this year.
"Currently over 90 percent of local neighborhood health centers can offer such a service, and it will be available in all centers by the end of this year," said Zhuang Minghua of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "Neighborhood health centers are important for HIV detection. Thirty-nine new cases reported this year were detected by neighborhood centers."
