China reported a significant increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, according to national media reports.

Xinhua news agency reports that in the first half of this year, China reported 18,543 new cases of residents living with HIV. This number is almost equal to the figure for the entire of 1996.

Han Mengjie, assistant to the director of the office with AIDS Control Work Committee of the State Council, said 2,039 people died of the disease in the first six months of the 2007.

Xinhua reports that Mengjie said during a recent symposium sponsored by UNICEF, the office with AIDS Control Work Committee of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Henan Provincial Government in Zhengzhou, that by late July, the number of AIDS/HIV patients in China totaled 214,300.

Of these, 56,758 presented full-blown symptoms. Another 18,246 had died, Mengjie said.

Drug abuse appears to be the main cause for the sharp increase in new HIV/AIDS cases.

Moreover, there may be a great number of people living with HIV who have not been diagnosed due to ignorance, fear, poverty or other factors.

Mengjie warned that the virus has begun to spread from high risk populations to the general public due to unsafe sex, and the migration of people already infected.

While China has 214,300 cases of HIV/AIDS officially registered, Reuters reports that the United Nations estimates some 650,000 citizens to be infected with the deadly virus.

The Chinese government has begun an initiative to educate the general public and prevent further propagation of the virus. In January 2007, the Chinese government launched a project to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and reduce workplace discrimination against HIV-positive people.