Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, has for several decades been a major and life-threatening infectious disease across the globe. The disease has over the years, spread sporadically in many parts of the world, thus resulting in massive deaths of millions of people. The number of HIV infections has been steadily increasing especially in Eastern Europe and Asia despite the fact that the sub-Saharan Africa still leads in the number of new infections. Asia in particular, is a region with various cultures having unique trends in demography and facing several epidemics. China is one of the countries that has been hard-hit by HIV/AIDS, with its spread increasing tremendously by the day. In this regard, it is utterly instrumental to closely examine the causes of the rising trends in HIV/AIDS infections in China, the ramifications, and measures that can be taken to mitigate its gradual spread effectively.
China is one of the largest countries in the world, which thus means it is among the most populated nations with more than one billion citizens. Owing to its high population rate, the prevalence and spread of HIV/AIDS has similarly been considerably high. Despite the relatively low infection rate of HIV/AIDS in China, its large population makes its spread and prevalence a very major drawback to the Chinese people. According to estimates, close to 1.5 million people in China live with the virus, and its death rate has been steadily increasing over time. In fact, HIV/AIDS is ranked as the leading cause of demise by infectious illness or disease In China.
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AIDS in China is spreading gradually from groups linked with high-risk behaviors, to even the general population. Its spread is significantly triggered by sexual intercourse, which has become a tremendously dominant cause of HIV/AIDS transmission in China and many other countries in the world. Sexual intercourse is the primary risk factor that contributes to infection of AIDS in China, and prostitution and homosexuality are among the leading factors.
Another noteworthy factor that has considerably contributed to the prevalence of AIDS across the Chinese population is the high rates of migration from rural areas to urban areas. The migration of rural laborers and workers to cities has dramatically contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS in China. The virus spreads easily among impoverished peasants specifically because of the huge rural-urban migration of workers. Migrating workers spread the virus to their spouses steadily mainly through sexual intercourse, and it consequently gets transmitted from mothers to their babies during birth. Through this way, the rates of transmission and spread keep rising by the day (Wu, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2009) .
Additionally, attitudes and perceptions towards sexual behaviors in China are also significantly changing. Currently, youths in China have increasingly high probabilities of experimenting with sexual intercourse earlier in their lives before marriage. Therefore, young people in China today engage in sexual intercourse and become sexually active at early ages, thus increasing their risks and vulnerabilities of contracting the HIV (Wu, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2009) .
There have also been ever-rising numbers of sex workers across the Republic of China, and this has significantly contributed to the spread of HIV. Sex workers are approximately close to four million in China, and they operate in social places such as bars, truck stops, massage parlors, salons, and various other places. They have thus caused a significant influx of the prevalence of HIV to their unsuspecting clients, who consequently spread it to their spouses. This ultimately results in higher numbers of AIDS cases in China.
The changing sexual revolution in China is also cardinal in examining the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs in China. Over the past three decades, the Chinese society has since undergone an immense sexual revolution, as a result of the dynamic economic, political and social transformations that were ushered by the historical economic reforms that took place in the late 1970s. The sexual revolution, in essence, is very evident in rapid changes in not only the prevalence of sexual-related behaviors but also the norms. One of these revolutions, for example, is the transformation of female sexuality, whereby research manifests an upsurge in women having multiple sexual partnerships, MSP (Yingying, Smith, & Suiming, 2010) . This increase in MSP and the general change in sexual revolution in China are informed by several factors such as educational levels, income, ignorance, among other factors.
The spread of HIV/AIDS in China has come with a myriad of ramifications. Apart from the increasing numbers of deaths due to the menace, HIV patients are also faced with arrays of drawbacks. For example, Discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS is largely predominant in China, just as it is in other parts of the globe. The levels of discrimination are reportedly high even in metropolitan and well-informed cities such as Hong Kong, therefore insinuating that it is also resonated in various other mainland parts of the country that are less developed and civilized (Lau & Tsui, 2005) .
Stigma and discrimination, in turn, have its fair share of disadvantages, since it not only lowers the self-esteem of the victims but also influences the usage of HIV-related care and prevention services. Reportedly, HIV-related knowledge, socio-demographic characteristics, personal acquaintance with AIDS patients, anti-homosexual attitudes and sympathy towards AIDS patients are majorly associated with rather discriminatory attitudes towards persons living with the virus (Lau & Tsui, 2005) .
In order to check the disturbingly high rates of HIV spread as well as improve the lives of HIV patients and eliminate discrimination, China has significantly made very substantial strides and progress. Many measures have been formulated to tackle the epidemic. Medical care and attention to HIV/AIDS patients has been greatly improved, and staggering amounts of money have been channeled to their medications and other preventive measures. Additionally, sex education has been widely advocated for, and some learning institutions have since incorporated these lessons in their curricula, in a bid to educate the citizenry, especially the young generation on critical issues regarding their sex lives. Insistence on abstinence and protection has, for example, been a critical phenomenon that has sought to prevent AIDS prevalence.
Although there have been drastic improvements that are aimed at decreasing AIDS prevalence, basic measures in HIV response need to be radically improved. For example, HIV/AIDS awareness needs to be improved especially in rural settings to ignorant and inadequately informed people. The poor exposure to HIV/AIDS knowledge, for instance among many peasants, leads to limited effectiveness and scope of education through mass media. Owing to the inadequate knowledge on AIDS prevention across many residents in China, many people, especially the youth, are very vulnerable to HIV transmission and infection.
When the spread and prevalence of AIDS, especially in rural areas, is utterly prevented, then China will be in a better position to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic more efficaciously and effectively. Presently, China’s HIV/AIDS prevention work and strategies in rural settings is not as satisfactory as it ought to, especially in the poverty-stricken locations. In essence, more suitable and cost-effective methodologies of interpersonal communication in the poverty-stricken areas within China need to be rigorously explored, to ensure that rural residents have easy and efficient access to HIV/AIDS prevention, new resources and knowledge. On this note, the development and inception of more efficient and innovative health education models especially for the rural populace are urgently needed (Wu, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2009) .
School-based health education, particularly on HIV/AIDS, has the colossal potential to mitigate and prevent the prevalence of the dangerous disease. Large numbers of youths in a vast majority of Chinese rural settings leave their homes in pursuit of jobs in major cities and towns. Thus, in the event that they lack standard risk perceptions as well as self-protection skills, then they may be at higher risks of practicing unsafe sexual behavior. Premarital sexual tendencies have become increasingly predominant especially amongst young people, which in consequence increase the risks of HIV infection and transmissions in China. Therefore, teenagers and the youth in entirety needs to be educated adequately on the values and behaviors that are essential to protect them from contracting the dangerous HIV, in a bid to aid them to lead fulfilled and decent lives (Wu, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2009) .
Moreover, youths are known to become powerhouses and very influential figures in informing change not only in their households, but also in the lives of their social circle, peers, and the extended community at large. For this reason, it is utterly pivotal to organize effective programs that are specifically youth-centered, since this will help in disseminating information that is vital for the prevention of AIDS especially in poverty-hit rural areas (Gao & Wang, 2007) . Moreover, young people can also be incorporated in the designing and formulation of AIDS policies or programs that are more holistic, and this is an integral step in tackling the lethal epidemic.
Health education intervention, for instance, is one of the most effective modalities that can be used to sensitize youths about HIV/AIDS better. The method may involve giving multimedia lectures, distributing posters, brochures, and videotapes, among others. This strategy strengthens retention of knowledge and makes it easier to deliver the information acquired to others (Wu, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2009) . By use of videos, projectors, multimedia and other suchlike modes of promoting education and publicity, the impact of information or knowledge has greatly been deepened. Also, the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS education, especially to citizenry domiciling in rural areas, has also improved.
Apart from investing heavily on mass awareness and sensitization on major issues surrounding HIV/AIDS causes and prevention, much more can also be done to mitigate the spread of the disease through other means such as drug injection, mother to child infections, blood transfusion, among others. The measures should be aimed at preventing the spread of the virus in all ways possible. Additionally, HIV/AIDS activism should also be regarded highly and promoted, since it will help in sensitizing people of the dangers of the disease, and how to prevent one from becoming vulnerable to its infection.
Overall, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has increasingly become widespread in China, and it has been ranked as one of the leading causes of death in the country. Despite the fact that progress has been made in addressing this menace, some challenges still abound. Some of its most predominant causes include sexual intercourse, drug injections, blood transfusions, ignorance, among others. To combat the menace, the society needs to be adequately sensitized about pertinent issues surrounding the disease such as sex education and many others, through effective strategies such as intervention. Through cohesive and holistic approaches, the spread and transmission of the disease can be significantly lowered and subdued.
References
Gao, Y., & Wang, S. (2007). Participatory communication and HIV/AIDS Prevention in a Chinese marginalized (MSM) Population. AIDS Care , 799-808.
Lau, J. T., & Tsui, H. Y. (2005). Discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS and associated factors: A population based study in the Chinese general population. Sex Transm Infect Journal , 113-119.
Wu, Q., Liu, G.-T., Wang, L.-R., & Wang, X.-I. (2009). A model of expanding HIV/AIDS Education in Chinese rural areas. International Journal of STD & AIDS , 87-90.
Yingying, H., Smith, K., & Suiming, P. (2010). Changes and correlates in multiple sexual partnerships among Chinese adult women-population-based surveys in 2000 and 2006. AIDS Care , 96-103.
