Fewer than two in five urban Chinese are aware of all the possible transmission routes of AIDS, a survey has found.

The Social Survey Institute of China (SSIC) questioned more than 1,000 people on the streets of major cities and found that less than 40 percent of respondents were familiar with all the AIDS risks.

About 83 percent knew AIDS could be transmitted by blood, including the use of dirty hypodermic needles, and 70 percent knew it could be passed through sexual contact. Only 36.7 percent knew that mothers could infect their babies during pregnancy.

The survey also showed that more than 70 percent thought the rising incidence of AIDS was irrelevant to themselves, while more than 80 percent thought AIDS was a remote problem that had no effect on their lives.

The cities targeted by the survey included Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing.

An estimated 650,000 Chinese had the HIV virus at the end of 2005, while 31,000 had died of AIDS since the disease was first discovered in China.

Half of AIDS patients are intravenous drug users, but in other places the epidemic has moved from drug users into the general population through sexual contact.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2006)