China says reported HIV/AIDS cases up nearly 30 pct

The number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in China has grown by nearly 30 per cent so far this year, the Health Ministry said, warning the virus seemed to be spreading from high-risk groups to the general public. The reported number of cases at the end of October had risen to 183,733, up from 144,089 at the end of last year, the Ministry said in a statement on its Web site. Of the reported cases diagnosed by government test centers and whose diseases could thus be officially followed up, 40,667 had developed into AIDS. Experts from the United Nations and the Chinese Health Ministry estimate about 650,000 people in China carried HIV, suggesting that many people were unaware they were infected. Drug abuse accounted for 37 per cent of the newly found infections this year whose transmission routes had been determined, while unsafe sexual contact had caused 28 per cent, the Health Ministry said.