China's battle against HIV/ AIDS could become more formidable once unsafe sex replaces drug use as the main form of virus transmission, health experts here warned on November 15.

Millions of people who have more than one sex partner, and also innocent spouses and babies, will be at risk for contracting HIV, the virus of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Currently, about 70 percent of China's estimated 400,000 HIV carriers are intravenous drug users who are often infected because of sharing needles.

However, unsafe sexual contact has led to three-fourths of the HIV/AIDS cases worldwide, far more than the number caused by intravenous drug use, infected blood transfusions, and mother-to- infant transmission.

China will be on the same road (of sexual transmission) if rampant prostitution and the rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are not curbed," warned Chen Xianyi, an official with the Ministry of Health.

In 1996 Chinese police arrested 420,000 prostitutes and their clients, but that is only one-tenth of the actual total, according to an estimation of the police.

Prostitutes have greater risks of both contracting and transmitting HIV because they are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and often don't get treatment, Chen said.

Meanwhile, 630,000 STD patients were reported last year, an increase of 37 percent over the figure in 1997 -- still only one- eighth or one-tenth of the true figure.

Nationwide, statistics show that HIV infection is becoming a serious problem among people having multiple sex partners.

"More seriously, knowledge of AIDS prevention and self protection can't reach them. And the situation will be graver if they bring the virus to their spouses and babies are infected by mothers," said Dai Zhicheng, with the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control.

China wants to reduce the number of HIV carriers to fewer than 1.5 million by 2020, mainly through lowering the numbers of drug users and STD patients.

However, health workers whose job is to persuade high-risk groups to have protected sex still have a difficult task ahead of them, Dai said. (Xinhua)