A total of 44,839 people living with HIV/AIDS were reportedly found in China during the first nine months of this year, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Another 6,897 people died of the disease during the same period.

The announcement brings the confirmed number of HIV cases in the country to 264,302. Included in that is 77,753 AIDS patients.

A confirmed total of 34,864 people died of AIDS in China since the data has been tracked.

These are just the confirmed cases.

According to a previous joint estimation by the ministry, UNAIDS and WHO, there were some 700,000 Chinese living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2007, including 85,000 AIDS patients, 0.05 percent of the population having contracted the virus.

In Oct. 2006, the estimate was 650,000.

"The spread of AIDS has generally slowed down in China, but factors for spreading the disease still remain in some areas," said Wang Weizhen, deputy director of the HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment department under the ministry's disease control bureau.

"The epidemic is lowly prevalent in general but it is highly prevalent among specific groups such as migrant workers, and in some regions, particularly remote areas and the countryside," Wang said.

About 40.4 percent of those who contracted the virus this year were infected via sex between men and women. Another 5.1 percent, a sharp increase from 0.4 percent in 2005, contracted the virus via homosexual transmission between men, ministry statistics show.

According to national surveillance figures, almost 70 percent of gay men had more than one sexual partner in the last six months but only 30 percent used condoms.

Wang said the Chinese government would continue to step up publicity efforts to prevent and combat HIV/AIDS among prostitutes and gay men. It will also offer AIDS patients various free services, such as counseling, testing, anti-viral medicine and education for orphans of AIDS patients.

Traditional Chinese medicines would also be used more extensively in treating the disease, Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2008)