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)