A nationwide initiative to enlist college students in an anti-HIV/AIDS campaign was launched in Beijing on Thursday.

The year-long initiative by the China Woman/Child Care Committee under the All China Women's Federation will reach 1 million students at 50 colleges and universities across the country to raise awareness and teach them about prevention.

The education program will be rolled out in various forms including general information brochures, lectures on prevention, and organizing AIDS patient care activities, said Liu Xiaoping, director of the committee.

"The project is very meaningful and timely," said Mao Yu, director of the Beijing Ditan Hospital specialist unit in treating infectious diseases.

College students who are usually sexually active are under great risk of contracting the virus, for which there is no cure, he said.

Of the 700,000 people with HIV in China, 70 percent are between 20 to 39 years old, official statistic showed. And sexual transmission has become the major source of its spread.

(China Daily March 14, 2008)