Since the beginning of this year, a total of 77 AIDS-infected people have been to the Shanghai Municipal Public Health Clinic Center to seek medical treatment. In the past, most of the newly infected AIDS patients in Shanghai were at a relatively old age and they usually had received little education. This year, however, many of the infected people are around 20-40 and many of them are regarded as highly-educated people. Among them, there are 14 people who were even born in the 1980s, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

The knowledge of these people about sex health and about AIDS prevention is rather limited. They might know some basic rules on AIDS prevention, such as using condoms. However, being young in age, they easily become sexually excited and when they have sex, they might forget to follow the basic rules. Some just have unprotected sex, resigning themselves to luck that they might not be infected, said Sun Hongqing, director of the AIDS Treatment Department under the Shanghai Municipal Public Health Clinic Center.

At the center, several young people who were infected with AIDS said they still couldn't face the fact and they didn't know how to deal with their life. They said they often felt depressed now, fearing that they would have to face a lot of discrimination in society, so they preferred to keep a low profile and saw their friends and relatives very little now.

December 1 will mark the World AIDS Day. In future, doctors will introduce more psychotherapies in AIDS treatment, such as methods that will teach patients how to properly face the fact and how to relieve their physical pains brought by AIDS medicines, said Cheng Liang, a professor at the Shanghai Municipal Public Health Clinic Center.

(China News Service November 22, 2007)