ZHENGZHOU - Health authorities said years of crackdown on illegal blood trade has slowed the spread of AIDS in central Henan Province, which has reported a three-year decline in the number of newly infected patients.

Henan reported 3,173 cases of AIDS infection last year, the fewest of the last three years, said a report from the Henan Provincial Health Department. The province's total number of AIDS carriers stood at 49,335 by the end of 2010.

Approximately 45 percent of infection cases reported in 2010 were through sexual contact, which overtook blood sales and drug abuse as the main contamination channels of AIDS in Henan, said the report.

The report also said Henan faces a tougher task of AIDS prevention and control among its homosexual population, as man-to-man sex was found to be the agent of 4 percent of the newly reported infections, compared to 0.06 percent in 2004.

The populous Henan Province received national attention for the rapid spread of AIDS since the 1990s, when a huge number of impoverished farmers were found to be infected with the deadly virus through careless blood selling.

The province has stepped up efforts to crush the illegal trade and to control the spread of the disease in rural areas. Its rank on the number of AIDS carriers, which used to be the largest compared with other provincial regions, has dropped to the third place.