Raising awareness

In another survey of 916 students, including 311 male and 605 female, at a university in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, only 50 percent of them knew that using condoms during sex and avoiding shared needles could help prevent AIDS. Among the respondents, 53 reported a history of sexual behavior, with two saying they had engaged in homosexual behavior, and nine had taken HIV tests.

HIV tests among college students are still quite rare. Disease control authorities have discovered some cases of infection accidentally while screening voluntary blood donors.

Gui Xi'en, a doctor with the Department of Infectious Diseases at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Hubei Province, has been involved in studying and surveying AIDS in China since the 1990s.

"I have diagnosed and treated 22 college students and most of them either had no clear understanding of the methods of infection or simply thought that such bad luck wouldn't land on them," Gui said.

Zhu Liya, the first HIV-positive college student that gave interviews to the media using her real name, was confirmed as being infected with the disease in 2004 while she was attending a university in Wuhan.

Catching HIV from an ex-boyfriend, Zhu attempted committing suicide after she was diagnosed as carrying the virus. After difficult period, she went to Wenlou Village in central China's Henan Province, where many villagers have also been infected, though through blood transmission. There she found that many of the villagers were living a much worse life than she was and she decided to do something for those with HIV/AIDS.

"Gui once called me and said six college students had come to him for help," Zhu recalled. "He asked whether I would be willing to share my own experiences and encourage them stay strong. I said no problem."

When Zhu arrived at the hospital, only two students stayed while the other four had left. "I understand that feeling of helplessness and despair, I wanted to help them to get through their difficult time," Zhu said.

On Tianya.cn, an online community popular in China, a college student from Chongqing shared his experience with finding out he was HIV-positive in August 2011, calling for more education for college students on safe sexual behavior as well as AIDS prevention and treatment.

"Nothing is more terrifying than ignorance," said the man in his early 20s. "No one told me such a thing would happen to me ... I only want my experiences to bring more attention to AIDS prevention and treatment."

Interventions should be carried out among college students to help with AIDS prevention, although compulsory tests are not feasible due to the lack of legal support, according to Wang with the Guangzhou Disease Prevention and Control Center.

In Guangzhou, Friendsteam, a non-governmental organization, was set up in 2006 to carry out AIDS education and awareness programs for college students.

Chen Du, founder of the organization, said that sex education in colleges lags behind, and many students from rural areas know little about AIDS.

Education and health resources have not been effectively combined in preventing AIDS, Chen said.

Though many free tests target male homosexuals, heterosexual transmission cannot be ignored, as some male students pay for sexual services, according to Chen.

Friendsteam organizes lectures, arts exhibitions, parties, training classes and seminars as part of its AIDS prevention efforts.

The Chongqing Rainbow Working Group and its website, China Rainbow Online, were founded in 2003 and 2005, respectively, to offer HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs for homosexuals and people with active sex with multiple partners.

AIDS prevention and sexual health knowledge should be taught in classes, and condom dispenser machines should be installed on college campuses, some students suggested.

Controlling the transmission of the HIV virus through the homosexual community will be a key task in Guangzhou's plan to fight AIDS, and more social organizations will be encouraged to join in with their efforts, according to Tang with the Guangzhou Health Bureau.

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