The Canadian Red Cross has launched an AIDS prevention course aimed at Chinese young people in northwest China's Gansu Province, said the local government Thursday.

The course, first initiated this October, has been run 17 times and 340 students from three colleges have attended.

The course aims to let more college students acquaint themselves with knowledge about the spread of HIV/AIDS and venereal disease so as to prevent the deadly disease, said a sponsor of the course.

In addition, the sponsor also plans to launch a hotline with radio advertising and brochures that are aimed at all the city's residents. The training course will also be given to 100 drug-users who are receiving treatment at a hospital in Baiyin City.

The Canadian Red Cross will offer the course this December in the cities of Tianshui, Lanzhou and Baiyin, increasing the number of trainees to 700.

Currently, more than 200 people in the province have been diagnosed with HIV since 1993. While Gansu is not considered a hot spot for the transmission of HIV in China, authorities are anxious to prevent its spread from high-risk groups to other segments of society.

Source: Xinhua