Objective: To investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practice of AIDS control knowledge among students in a university in Hangzhou City, so as to provide the evidence for evaluating the effectiveness of AIDS control in universities. Methods: The knowledge, attitudes and practice towards AIDS control were investigated among students in a university in Hangzhou City using self-designed questionnaires in 2020, and were descriptively analyzed. Results: Totally 6 300 questionnaires were allocated, and 6 164 valid ones were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 97.84%. The respondents included 2 837 male students ( 46.03% ) and 3 327 female students ( 53.97% ), and had a mean age of ( 18.20±0.76 ) years. The overall awareness of AIDS control knowledge was 73.49%. The awareness rates of “The rights of marriage, employment and school admission are protected among HIV-infected individuals by Chinese laws” ( 61.11% ) and “Homosexual contact in men is the current main transmission pattern among young students in China” ( 66.37% ) were relatively low. There were 768 university students with a history of sexual behaviors ( 12.46% ), and regular sex partners were the predominant sex partners at the first sexual contact ( 679 students, 90.78% ) and at the sexual behaviors during the past one year ( 402 students, 71.91% ). There were 515 students (67.14%) using condoms during the first sexual contact, and there were 300 ( 63.83% ) and 16 students ( 40.00% ) using condoms with regular and casual sex partners during the past one year, respectively. Among 20 men who had sex with men, only 5 students ( 25.00% ) used condoms at each sexual contact. Of students with sexual behaviors, there were 355 (46.22%) and 354 ( 46.09% ) students that considered to be infected with AIDS and other sex-transmitted diseases, and among the university students with sexual behaviors, there were 614 ( 79.95% ) students that were willing to receive HIV testing, and 409 ( 53.26% ) and 305 ( 39.71% ) students that were willing to receive HIV testing in hospitals and disease control and prevention institutions, respectively. Conclusions The awareness of AIDS control knowledge is low among students in the university in Hangzhou City, which does not reach the national goal of supervision and assessment for AIDS control in China. There are high-risk sexual behaviors and the rate of condom use is low.

To study the antiviral effect of Hypericum perforatum L. extract (HPE) on influenza A virus (IAV) (H1N1) in vitro and in vivo. Cytopathic effect (CPE) and neutral red (NR) dye uptake were used to examine the antiviral effect of HPE on Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells which were infected with IAV in vitro. HPE was effective against influenza A virus (IAV) in vitro, with a 50% effective concentration (EC50) of 40 μg/mL. The mean 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) in the MDCK used in these experiments was 1.5 mg/mL. Ribavirin was run in parallel with EC50 values of 5.0 μg/mL; the mean CC50 for ribavirin was 520 μg/mL. Oral gavage administrations of HPE or ribavirin to mice infected with the IAV were highly effective in preventing death, slowing the decline of arterial oxygen saturation, inhibiting lung consolidation and reducing lung virus titers. The minimum effective dose of HPE in these studies was 31.25 mg/kg/day, which was administered twice daily for 5 d beginning 4 h prior to virus exposure. Below a dosage of 2000 mg/kg/day, almost all treated mice survived, which suggests that HPE is of low toxicity. Ribavirin's minimum effective dose was 40 mg/kg/day with the LD50 determined to be 200 mg/kg/day. Delay of the initiation of either HPE or ribavirin therapy, using approximately 1/3 LD50 dose each time, could still be protective as late as 48 h after exposure to the IAV. While both agents appeared to have similar efficacy against IAV infections, HPE was considered to be less toxic and may warrant further evaluation as a possible therapy for influenza.

NAS preparation, a kind of Chinese herbal medicine found by the Yunnan Eco-agricultural Research Institute, has potential antiviral activity. In this paper, the inhibiting effect of NAS preparation on H9N2 subtype Avian influenza virus (AIV) was investigated in vivo. Chickens infected with H9N2 virus were treated with NAS preparation for 4 days. The virus was then detected by hemoagglutination (HA) test and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed that no H9N2 virus could be detected at the 7th day when the chickens were treated with 0.2g/kg/d or 0.1g/kg/d of NAS preparation. However the virus could be detected in other chickens without NAS preparation treatment. This result suggested that NAS preparation may be a potential drug candidate to control infection of H9N2 subtype AIV in chickens.