Chen Wenjia, deputy head of the Fujian health department, said the province will make the campaign against AIDS a regular agenda item in its efforts to educate the public.

The official also called for the help of the local media in relaying the seriousness of the disease to the public.

Speaking at a provincial conference on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS on Friday, Chen warned that the deadly disease is spreading rapidly in the province.

The province reported the first case in 1987. By September, 239 people had tested positive for the HIV virus, including 80 AIDS patients. To date, 59 have died.

According to Chen, so far infected people have been found in all cities and regions in the province, with the majority living in developed coastal areas.

People between the ages of 20 and 40 make up 72.8 percent of people in the province found to have contracted the virus.

Chen said that 88.1 percent of cases in the province had been caused by unprotected sex.

HIV/AIDS spreads through unprotected sex, blood transfusions and intravenous drug injections, or from an infected mother to her unborn baby.

People in Fujian who have contracted the HIV virus within China account for more than 50 percent of those infected.

This indicates that the disease has started to spread within the province, Chen said, while in the past, more people got infected when they were abroad.

Xi Jinping, the province's governor, has called for testing facilities for HIV/AIDS to be set up. He promised that the province will invest more in an attempt to curb the disease.

According to a plan for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, the province hopes to establish a system based on co-operation between different departments.

(China Daily December 4, 2001)