West must not give up on AIDS fight "It's very hard for us to obtain an exact number due to our limited ability to monitor and report the epidemic situation in this age group," Hao Yang, deputy director of the Health Ministry's disease control bureau, told a health seminar in Beijing last year. "Older people are more prone to having medical conditions that require surgeries and hospitals are stricter on pre-operative checks -- that's how many of them are notified of their HIV status for the first time." Researchers say the lure of easy sex with prostitutes -- the average price paid a relatively modest $5.5 -- and the lack of safe sex knowledge among their generation have exposed an increasing number of Chinese senior citizens to the danger of HIV/AIDS.