ON THE 27 TH WORLD AIDS DAY ON MONDAY, IT is easy to brag about what we've achieved in the fight against the virus, but that does little to help locate where more urgent efforts are needed.

Despite the drop in HIV infections by almost 40 percent globally since 2001 and AIDS-related deaths by 35 percent since their peak in 2005, the number of new AIDS infections and patients from January to October this year was 2,932 in Beijing, a 21.3 percent increase over the same period the previous year. The national statistics are not available yet.

What is particularly worrying is the increase in AIDS infections among students. From January to October this year, the capital reported more than 100 cases of infections among students. In the same period, 10 other provinces have also reported more than 100 students infected with the virus.