Across China: Xinjiang

4,000 new HIV cases

Xinjiang health department said yesterday that in the year to Sept 30, almost 4,000 new HIV cases were reported in the region, China News Service reported. The increase took the total to 24,818, or 9 percent of the national total. The number of AIDS patients is 2,505 and 1,353 people are known to have died from the disease.

The department said the new cases came mostly from the suburban areas of Urumqi and Yili. It estimated the actual number of people with HIV could be more than 60,000.