China reported 132,545 accumulated cases of HIV infection by the end of August this year, Vice Health Minister Wang Longde announced at a national AIDS conference in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, on Monday.

They included 30,158 people diagnosed with AIDS and 7,643 deaths, said Wang, and the provinces of Yunnan, Henan and Guangdong and the autonomous regions of Guangxi and Xinjiang reported more than 10,000 cases each, 77 percent of the total.

Of newly reported cases of HIV infection, 41.6 percent were thought to have been transmitted through sharing drug injecting equipment, 23.5 percent through blood transfusions and 9.1 percent through sex.

According to Wang, the government has devised a wide range of measures for its second five-year plan to bring infections under control, such as strengthening the "four free charges and one care" project.

This offers free medicine for HIV positive people, free and anonymous HIV tests, free education for children of people with AIDS and free prenatal treatment for infected pregnant women.

Elderly people who have lost children to AIDS also receive free care.

Central and provincial governments will continue to increase spending on HIV/AIDS control and prevention, said Wang.

The ministry at the end of 2004 reported 106,990 cases of HIV infection including 23,955 people with AIDS. However, experts believed the actual number of Chinese people with HIV was over 840,000.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2005)