Chinese students need more intensive sex education "not only for the prevention of HIV but also for personal health", UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said Tuesday in his review of China's anti-AIDS work.

 

"In some schools, teachers just give students booklets and they think their job is done," he said.

 

Young people were more willing to accept or practice new concepts, ideas and even risky behavior, so they were more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, said Wang Longde, Vice Minister of Health.

 

"Sexual transmission accounts for 91 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases known in China," said Wang, citing a medical college student who wrote to the central government to express his fear of getting HIV after having sex with men, but later turned out to be uninfected.

 

Of newly diagnosed HIV carriers in 2006, almost 80 percent were aged 20 to 39, said Wang.

 

While praising China's anti-AIDS efforts, Dr. Piot also expressed his hope for wider treatment coverage, higher data transparency and less social discrimination in China's fight against AIDS.

 

Last month a nationwide campaign was launched to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among college students to combat a rise in transmissions through sex.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2007)