Students at a primary school in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, display their hand-made red ribbons "an international symbol of AIDS awareness" yesterday on the eve of World AIDS Day. China had 650,000 HIV carriers, including 75,000 AIDS patients at the end of last year, according to the government estimates.

A worker reads an AIDS prevention brochure during an "HIV/AIDS Awareness Program" at a construction site in Beijing on the eve of World AIDS Day November 30, 2006.

A worker holds a pack of free condoms during an "HIV/AIDS Awareness Program" at a construction site in Beijing on the eve of World AIDS Day November 30, 2006.

A drug addict (R) gets a cup of methadone which is used to ease drug addiction inside a local hospital in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province November 30, 2006. Thirty-seven percent of HIV infections were caused by drug users sharing contaminated needles and 28 percent were caused by unprotected sex, according to Hao Yang, deputy director of the ministry's Bureau of Disease Control, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Pupils line up to form an anti-Aids symbol during an HIV/AIDS awareness rally at a primary school in Hefei, east China's Anhui province November 30, 2006. The number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in China has jumped by nearly 30 percent to more than 183,000 so far this year, according to the Health Ministry which said the virus seemed to be spreading from high-risk groups to the general public.

(China Daily December 1, 2006)