World AIDS Day has been held on December first since 1988.

The international community has committed to reaching the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 but challenges remain.

U.N. AIDS reports more than 36 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/AIDS. The most common means of infection among adolescents has shifted from drug to sexual transmission.

In China, colleges and universities are taking action by making it easier for students to get tested.

CCTV’s Liu Yang reports.

Students in China can use the test to send a urine sample to a laboratory, and then access the results online. It can all be done completely anonymously.

The pilot project was initiated by China Association of STD/AIDS Prevention and Control. The program is particularly designed for college students and has spread to universities in Beijing, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Heilongjiang. Students from the university’s AIDS association said the approach is necessary.

On the 29th World AIDS Day, students said the red ribbons are not just a symbol, it is also a wish for more people to pay attention to AIDS prevention and protecting themselves from being infected.

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HIV impact on adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa is working round the clock to end the spread. Most of the world’s cases of HIV/AIDS are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

CCTV’s Julie Scheier has more on efforts there to fight the epidemic.
Follow Julie Scheier on Twitter @juliescheier

Every two minutes, a teenager between the ages of 15 and 19 is infected by HIV nearly two-thirds of them are girls.

UNICEF has warned that new infections among young people may rise by 60 percent if urgent action isn’t taken.

AIDS remains a leading cause of death among young people worldwide.

“The worst time for a child’s life with HIV is 0-4 years because up to 30 percent of them will die by year one, 50 percent will die by year two and 80 percent will die by year five. So we have to really redouble our efforts to find the children and link them into treatment and maintain them into treatment,” Dr. Chewe Luo, HIV/AIDS director of UNICEF said.

UNICEF also said too many children at risk aren’t receiving treatment.

The fight is far from over. Despite progress in preventing new infections around 400 children around the world are infected with HIV every day. So if funding stalls, AIDS will continue to be the leading cause of death in young people around the world.

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Dr. David Margolis on future of HIV research and development

For future of HIV research and development. CCTV America’s Elaine Reyes spoke to is Dr. David Margolis. He’s a Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

This statistic depicts the mean number of new tuberculosis cases among persons which are HIV-positive in high-burden countries worldwide in 2015. South Africa led the ranking that year with a mean value of 258,000 new HIV-positive tuberculosis cases.