The center has so far received 77 HIV patients this year, and about 70 percent of them have good educational backgrounds.

    Most of them are between the ages of 20 and 40. Fourteen of the patients were born after 1980.

    "The new HIV carriers this year are much younger and have better educational backgrounds than in the past," Sun Hongqing, a doctor at the center, said.

    It has been reported that the most common way to spread HIV in this city is through sexual intercourse.

    Sexually transmitted diseases of all types are becoming increasingly common in Shanghai.

    In March alone, the city reported 935 cases of syphilis, accounting for more than a quarter of the new cases of serious infectious diseases in the city.

    Sun attributed the spread of HIV to a lack of knowledge about sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

    "They just don't know much about sexual health, such as how to use a condom, and then many of them forget all the basics. Some of them are just happy to take the risk," Sun said.

    Shanghai reported its first HIV infection in 1987. By the end of last year, 2,313 infections had been reported. One hundred people have died of the disease.

    The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center receives funding from the Shanghai municipal government.

    The center was designed as an integrated facility encompassing clinical therapeutics, teaching and research.

    The center aims to improve the city's public health system and clinical treatment of infectious disease and to create a platform for cooperation on public health and research, in order to upgrade Shanghai's research capabilities.

    "We are planning to introduce more psychological interventions for HIV patients during our therapy sessions," Chen Liang, a professor at the center, said.

    "We need to help them accept the reality of their illness and rebuild their self confidence to go back to society."

    Next Saturday is the 20th annual World AIDS Day.