A hospital's request for blood from healthy female virgins has attracted public attention while raising awareness of the human papillomavirus, the primary cause of cervical cancer.

The notice, which requests the blood for HPV studies, appeared on online bulletin board systems at Peking University and Beijing Normal University last week.

Peking University Cancer Hospital is conducting studies of possible antibodies. The hospital said it would need 100 healthy female virgin college students from 18 to 24 years old as blood donors for the studies.