Fridae

Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention for China has revealed some of the country's statistics at the ongoing 2015 National Conference on HIV/AIDS.

China has reported nearly 110,000 HIV/Aids cases this year, slightly more than last year. The gay  male population made up 25% of this population.

Wu was keen to highlight the worrying trend of an increasing number of gay men ho are HIV positive.

"The situation among gay men is alarming and in some cities one out of five gay men is HIV positive," he said, citing a national average of 8 percent among the group.

This national average has risen from just 1.3% in in 2004. Wu also highlighted that young students have been hit hard in recent years. 70 to 80 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases detected in 2015 among young students involved gay sex.

Prevention strategies like education and behavioural intervention that have have kept China's HIV prevalence down to 0.06% didn't work well for men who have sex with men, said Wu.

Many of them are aware of the risks and preventive measures like condoms and lubricant use but simply don't practice accordingly, he told China daily.

Wu suggested that improved treatment of HIV sufferers would be needed to curb the spread as it was harder to spread the virus if on antiretroviral drugs.