While the prevalence of AIDS in China remains low compared with the total population, the situation is very serious in several provinces affected by drug trafficking and illegal blood donation, senior Chinese AIDS control officials said on Saturday.
China had registered a total of 214,000 HIV cases by July 30 this year, said Hao Yang, deputy director of the AIDS prevention and control office of the State Council during an online interview at Xinhuanet.com.
"But still many HIV-positive people are not registered as having the disease," Hao said, "we rely on sample surveys to assess the general prevalence."
According to the last major survey in 2005 by the Ministry of Health, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from HIV in China was estimated to be 650,000.
