A vending machine in China's Southwest Petroleum University in Sichuan Province has started selling diagnostic kits for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to combat the increasing infection rates especially among young people.

The HIV tests, which were displayed alongside snacks and drinks, cost $4.4, over nine times cheaper than the similar kits sold on online shopping sites like Taobao for $45, Quartz reported. The price is reportedly subsidized by a charity.

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The university is the first to sell these cheap self-testing kits to students. The initiative was introduced by the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS prevention, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.

Students could use the HIV kits by obtaining their own urine samples and sending them back to a lab for testing. The entire process will be treated with confidentiality, and results can be obtained online, Quartz noted.

The move comes after a month of study that was published in official Chinese media reporting a steep increase of HIV cases among adolescents and youth.

A report released last month revealed that the growth rate of HIV/AIDS infection among students surpassed other groups. Furthermore, majority of which involve gay men, accounting for 81.6 percent.

For instance, the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi province saw at least a 43 percent increase over the last five years, and over 80 percent of which involved homosexual men. Beijing also has at least 100 new cases among young students reported every year, and Shanghai has at least 92 cases of HIV infection last year.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, China has at least half a million HIV cases. Although the figure only accounts for less than .037 percent of the total population, the number of victims continue to increase, at roughly 200,000 new cases reported between 2010 and 2014, Shanghaiist noted.

TagsHIV, AIDS, Southwest Petroleum University, Sichuan Province, vending machine, HIV kits vending machine