Vending machines at several universities in Beijing are offering HIV test kits as AIDS prevention focuses on college students.
37 HIV test kits were sold out at 10 Beijing universities within a month, while kits placed in Tsinghua University were sold out within a day after they were made available, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Fourteen of the 37 kits were tested, all with negative results. "Some of my classmates took the test and I consider that responsible behavior because sex is not any more a skeleton in the closet for college students, and the notion of safe sex and sanitary checks should be promoted as much as possible," a student surnamed Sun told the Global Times.
Each kit costs 30 yuan ($4.36) at the universities, but goes for 298 yuan elsewhere, the report said, adding that users will get a code after they put their urine samples in the machine. The code allows them to get the results 10 days after, and the process is completely anonymous.
Data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission shows that in 2014, for those aged from 15 to 24, 16.58 percent of these suffered from AIDS were students; the number increased from 5.77 percent in 2008.
This trend has made college students the targeted group for HIV prevention, and the center for disease control and prevention in Beijing's Haidian district, which is home to most Beijing universities, is introducing HIV test kits in universities this year.
Some universities at other places, including Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province and Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have also introduced HIV test kits in recent years.
