Six out of every 10,000 people in China may be infected with HIV/AIDS, according to official figures revealed on Monday, the eve of World AIDS Day.
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in China had hit 575,000 by the end of October, with 177,000 deaths, said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).
Describing the situation as a mild pandemic, the China CDC said men who have sex with men have become the group with the highest infection rate.
Around 8 percent of men who have sex with men in China are living with HIV/AIDS, according to 2015 statistics.
Sexual transmission is the main infection channel, with infection through heterosexual activities accounting for 66.6 percent of total cases, those through homosexual activities 27.2 percent, while mother-to-child and drug needle infection rates are low.
Infections among young people have become particularly noticeable, as 2,662 new cases of students living with HIV/AIDS were reported from January to October, a surge of 27.8 percent year on year, the China CDC said.
Some 97,000 new cases in total were reported in the period.
