Chinese Universities Ramp Up Sexual Education

All over the globe, nations are battling the AIDS/HIV epidemic. In many countries, especially third-world ones, getting a good handle on the infection rate is virtually impossible. Even industrialized countries like China are grappling with ways to determine an accurate HIV/AIDS infection rate amongst its population. In fact, in an attempt to see what the infection rate is amongst the university population, college students in the Zhejiang province will be given physical examinations.

Results from these exams will be able to help in multiple ways, according to Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For one, health departments will be given a more accurate picture of the infection rate. This will, in turn, give health departments a means to architect more specific ways to help control the infection rate and prevent the virus from spreading. This new initiative was spurred when a spot check of 2,000 college students was done at three different universities. Results showed that of the 2,000 students, eight of them carried the virus that causes AIDS. While this put the infection rate at 0.4 percent, it was a wake-up call that many more students could be walking around carrying the virus and unknowingly infecting others with it.

The CDC states that in students between the ages of 19 and 23, the number of college students who have contracted the virus is increasing. This was reported in the Zinhua News Agency. A CDC official stated that the main way students were transmitting the disease was through sexual contact. In addition, the official noted that gay males had a higher chance of contracting HIV. As of now, the CDC has not solidified when the physical examinations of the university students will begin, nor have they disclosed how many students would be participating in the new initiative.

Statistics from the Hangzhou CDC noted that by May 2010, there were 100 new cases of HIV infections; this rate was an increase of over 7% from the previous year. Just under 4% of the new cases were seen in university students through sexual transmission and just under 50% of the new cases were seen in gay males. An official from the Shanghai CDC stated that the best way to protect against the virus was to consistently and correctly use condoms. He also noted that not remaining monogamous and having many different sexual partners also put people at a higher risk of contracting the virus.

Many Chinese college campuses are ramping up their sexual education initiatives in order to teach students the importance of protecting themselves against HIV/AIDS. Xu Liyun, a teacher at Shanghai International Studies University, stated, “We have a lecture on AIDS prevention for all freshmen at our university, because we have noticed that university students are more and more sexually open. Some students may feel embarrassed at the lecture, but we insist on their attending in order to protect them from getting hurt due to a lack of knowledge.” She also stated that organizations like the Red Cross also participate in educating college students on how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS.