Accumulated number of confirmed HIV/AIDS cases in China registered 26,058 by the end of June, this year, a senior health official told the press in Beijing on Thursday.
Yin Dakui, vice minister of Health, also said the total number of HIV-positive people was estimated to surpass 600,000 at the end of last year.
Since the disease was for the first time discovered in China in 1985, 584 patients have died, he said.
Statistics released at an on-going press conference also indicated that intravenous drug use is the leading cause of HIV/ AIDS spread in the world's most populous country, followed by sexual contact and the mother-infant transmission.
People aged between 15 and 49 are most vulnerable to the attack of the AIDS virus.
(People's Daily 08/24/2001)
