‘Alarming’ rise in students with HIV
Print Edition
A GROWING number of students are testing positive for the HIV virus, Yu Jingjin, director of China’s disease control and prevention bureau, told a news conference in Beijing yesterday.
In 2008 there were 482 students who tested positive for the virus or had AIDS — 5.77 percent of all those infected between the ages of 15 and 24.
Last year, the proportion of students rose to almost 17 percent.
“The quick rise of students affected with the HIV virus is alarming,” Yu said.
Youngsters between 15 and 24 make up around 15 percent of HIV carriers and AIDS patients, National Health and Family Planning Commission officials told the conference.
China reported more than 103,000 HIV carriers and AID patients last year, with 14.87 percent in the young age group. Little change from 2008, when they made up 14.85 percent of some 56,000 cases.
At the end of last year, there were about 36,000 young people living with the HIV virus or AIDS, 7.2 percent of the total number. There were about 7,200 students, a sector rising more quickly than other age groups.
Unprotected sex among young people, responsible for 55.3 percent of cases in 2008, was the reason for 94.5 percent of them in 2014. The incidence of the virus spreading through males having sex with males rose from 13.2 percent in 2008 to 54.7 percent.
Among students, unprotected sex with other males was responsible for 81.6 percent of new cases compared with 58.5 percent in 2008.
The health commission also said China had improved its infectious disease control by establishing the world’s largest infectious disease and public health event reporting network.
Officials said last year’s dengue fever epidemic was mainly confined to southern provinces such as Guangdong.
The World Health Organization said the number of dengue cases had risen by eight times in the western Pacific region since 2000.
“China has controlled dengue fever cases below 1,000 annually since 1989, while there were over 46,000 cases last year,” Yu said.
Yu said 19 provinces had reported 67 cases so far this year, about 20 more than the same time of last year.
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