BEIJING, Nov 29 (AFP) - The number of HIV/AIDS cases in China is increasing at a rapid rate of 40 percent a year, a health ministry official was cited as saying by state media Monday.
The official, who was not named, said China had become the second worst-hit country in Asia and the 14th in the world, without providing figures, the China Times reported.
The health ministry told AFP that new data on the number of Chinese HIV/AIDS patients would be made public Tuesday, a day before World AIDS Day.
Until now China has maintained that it has an estimated 840,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers although international AIDS experts say the actual number is much higher.
China has admitted it does not know the real numbers. The United Nations predicts China could have 10 million cases by 2010 if action is not taken.
Since AIDS was first detected in China in 1985, an estimated 160,000 people have died.
Many HIV/AIDS patients were infected by contaminated blood in government-run and illegal blood-selling operations in the 1980s and 1990s.
Intravenous drug use, prostitution and ignorance about the disease are also cited as big problems in its spread.
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