The HIV/AIDS epidemic is hitting young Chinese students, particularly males, hard and fast, with the number of cases reported this year expected to surge more than fourfold over seven years ago, said the nation's top AIDS specialist.

More than 3,400 cases of students with HIV/AIDS are expected to be reported in China by the end of this year, compared with 779 in 2008, said Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

Over the same period, the number of cases reported annually among the general population has almost doubled, he said, citing a real-time epidemic surveillance system. Roughly 110,000 new cases have been reported so far this year.

"It's an emerging and tough challenge protecting particularly young students from HIV/AIDS," he told China Daily.

According to Wu, a majority of the infected students are males ages 18 to 22, and nearly 81 percent contracted the virus via gay sex.

By comparison, among nonstudent Chinese in the same age group, heterosexual sex exceeds gay sex as a major transmission route for HIV/AIDS.

The provinces of Sichuan in Southwest China and Jiangsu in East China, as well as Beijing, reported most of the student cases.

Of such cases, 83 percent of the infected are receiving antiretroviral therapy, and more than 90 percent are covered by follow-up services such as disease development surveillance and behavior intervention.

Both of those figures are higher than for infected non-students of the same age, said Zhao Yan, deputy director of the AIDS Treatment and Care Division of the center.

To curb the fast spread of the virus among students, Zhao called for easier access to HIV screening services on campuses.

"Safe-sex education is equally important for them at a sexually active age," she added.

The latest statistics from the center's surveillance system show that 65 percent of the confirmed cases of infected students contracted the virus at the ages of 18 to 20.

Additionally, about 6 percent of Chinese students ages 15 to 24 had an HIV test this year, and "that should be further expanded," said Wu.

Zhou Yi, head of a Shanghai-based civil society committed to AIDS control, said the group was also aware of the quick increase of infected students.

But "it's still hard for volunteers to go on campus for awareness-raising lectures and communication with students," he said, adding that health intervention is difficult and that empowering students with knowledge is the first step.

Wu emphasized that behavior change is very difficult and requires repeated efforts to educate those at risk.

This was supported by the epidemic surveillance results, which showed that up to 90 percent of students ages 15 to 24 were aware of HIV/AIDS-related risk factors and preventive methods.

But "knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to practice," he said. The last resort would be "to put as many of the sufferers on treatment as possible".

With proper treatment, an infected person's viral load could be as low as undetectable, and thus infection of others could be prevented, Wu said.

shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn