The head of a Ningxia mosque teaches the Muslim faithful about the gravity of AIDS and the need to prevent transmission.
Yang Guoao is the director of a local mosque in northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and this year he started teaching about HIV/AIDS, along with regular religious preaching.
The issue is controversial because Muslims generally oppose relaxed sexuality, condoms and artificial birth control.
At every weekend or big religious gathering, Yang gives a short lecture on HIV/AIDS.
The program is supported by UNICEF, the UN children's fund, to raise  awareness of HIV/AIDS.
Ningxia, with a population of 5.87 million, has reported 61 HIV cases, including five deaths.
The causes: 58 percent of infections were due to intravenous drug injections and 15 percent due to sexual transmission. The other causes were not reported.
UNICEF supports faith-based responses to HIV/AIDS as a way to improve awareness and community care and support.
UNICEF worked with mullahs in Ningxia, where Muslims are 34.9 percent of the population, and with Buddhist monks in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Mullah Yang said people, mostly youths, were impressed by the information. His lectures are directed at youth, since as many as 33 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases reported in Ningxia are in those between 20 and 30.
Earlier this year, 130 religious leaders from 43 mosques accepted lectures offered by UNICEF on HIV/AIDS.
They then integrated HIV/AIDS prevention and care messages into their religious activities.
"The spread of HIV/AIDS is a situation we can not ignore," said UNICEF chief Ann M. Veneman during her recent visit to Ningxia.
The mosque has explained how the HIV/AIDS virus spreads.
To date, the trained religious leaders in Ningxia have communicated with 492,000 people on HIV/AIDS and distributed 200,000 copies of educational materials, said UNICEF.
Official said at the end of 2003, China had 840,000 people infected with HIV.
Experts predict the number of people living with HIV/AIDS could exceed 10 million by the year 2010.
(Xinhua)