The number of students infected with HIV is rising in south China's Guangdong Province, said the provincial disease prevention center ahead of the World AIDS Day.

A total of 109 students have been reported HIV positive from January to October, 39 more than the same period last year, according to a report released by an AIDS prevention center under the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The center conducted a survey of 3,884 students aged between 18 and 24 in middle schools, vocational schools and colleges in 21 cities in the province.

Sixty-nine percent of those infected caught the virus through homosexual activities, 26 percent caught it through heterosexual activities and the rest were unsure how they caught it, the report said.

About 89 percent of those infected were male.

The report also found out that young people in Guangdong were bold sexually. About 31 percent of those surveyed claimed they had more than two sexual partners, 12 percent said they had more than five, and three percent more than 50. Condoms were found to be unpopular with those surveyed.

The number of HIV infections on campus is expected to reach 130 in Guangdong by the end of the year, the report said.

By the end of October, the number of people living with HIV in China had hit 497,000, with 154,000 deaths. In central China's Henan Province, the hardest-hit area by HIV, 63,940 people have been infected with the virus and 33,662 have shown symptoms of AIDS.

China has set up 3,413 anti-virus treatment institutions in 31 provincial-level regions and more than 9,000 voluntary HIV test stations were set up nationwide.

The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also promised on Sunday more work to prevent and treat AIDS, adding that China is willing to cooperate with other countries to combat HIV.