China's Ministry of Health said that by the end of October 2007, a total of 223,501 people had been officially reported to have contracted HIV, including 62,838 AIDS patients.

The figure was contained in a report jointly prepared by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS. The three organizations released the joint appraisal report at a press conference in Beijing.

The total number of reported HIV carriers increased from 183,733 reported by the ministry at the end of October, 2006.

According to the report, there will be estimably as many as 700,000 people living with AIDS/HIV in the country by the end of 2007.

The estimated figure is more accurate than the figure released previously due to a strengthened reporting system, research work and surveillance, Health Minister Chen Zhu said at the conference.

The difference between the estimated figures and the official figures is partly down to reluctance by individuals to come forward for treatment, the report said.

"The rate of AIDS growth has slowed down, but factors that cause the widespread of AIDS still remain," Chen said, without elaborating.

The Ministry says all together 22,205 have died from AIDS in the past year, almost double the figure of 12,464 reported 12 months ago.

There will be roughly 85,000 AIDS patients among 700,000 people estimably living with HIV/AIDS in China by the end of 2007. In October of 2006, the estimated figures were 650,000 HIV carriers and 75,000 AIDS patients.

According to the report, among 50,000 cases of newly contracted HIV/AIDS in the past year, 44.7 percent contracted the virus through heterosexual transmission, 12.2 percent through homosexual transmission, 42 percent through intravenous drug injection and 1.1 percent from mother-to-baby transmission.

"Sex has become the main channel of contracting HIV virus," Chen said.

According to national surveillance figures, the rate of regular condom use among China's prostitutes rose from 14.7 percent in 2001 to 41.4 percent in 2006.

The Chinese government offer AIDS patients various free services, such as free counseling, free testing, free anti-viral medicine and free education for orphans of AIDS patients.

Chinese health authorities to date have provided anti-viral treatment to 39,298 AIDS patients, according to Chen.

Globally, 2.5 million people have been diagnosed with HIV so far in 2007, with a total of 33.2 million living with the virus.

The World AIDS Day will fall on Dec. 1.

http://www.gzjiayumed.com/en/index.asp