The incidence of AIDS is still on the rise in China, according to a joint assessment report on the country's HIV/AIDS situation released on Wednesday.

The number of Chinese newly infected with HIV/AIDS was around 70,000 in 2005, and about 25,000 people died of the disease across the country, according to the report, adding that most of them were infected through drug injection and unprotected sexual contacts.

Meanwhile, the disease has been spreading to common people from the high-risk groups, the report said.

China currently has about 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS including about 75,000 AIDS patients.

The assessment was jointly released by the Ministry of Health, Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization at a press conference on the 2005 Update on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Response in China.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2006)