The HIV/AIDS epidemic is hitting young Chinese students, particularly males, hard and fast, with the number of cases reported this year expected to surge more than fourfold over seven years ago, said the nation's top AIDS specialist.

More than 3,400 cases of students with HIV/AIDS are expected to be reported in China by the end of this year, compared with 779 in 2008, said Wu Zunyou, head of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

Over the same period, the number of cases reported annually among the general population has almost doubled, he said, citing a real-time epidemic surveillance system. Roughly 110,000 new cases have been reported so far this year.