The topic, however, remains sensitive and authorities regularly crack down on activists and patients seeking more support and rights.
Stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and discrimination against people with the disease remain high in some communities and workplaces, the report said. This leads to high-risk people not getting tested or admitting they have HIV, and this aids the spread of the virus, the report said.
Chen welcomed the work of civil groups and mass organizations that have reached out to those with HIV/AIDS. Celebrity help in raising awareness has also helped, he said.
"The report shows how far the government has come in responding to HIV," said Ed Settle, who works on HIV/AIDS issues for UNDP China.
"They've come to the realization that high-risk groups need more attention, and they recognize that civil society groups have more of a role in reaching out to the more vulnerable."
But many organizations have run into difficulties getting proper legal registration, the report noted.
China has long been wary of NGOs, fearing they might be acting as agents for foreign governments or encouraging defiance of the Communist Party.
The Numbers
The number of officially reported HIV cases in China remained only 223,501—far lower than the estimated total, probably in part because many infected are reluctant to seek testing. The figure includes those who developed AIDS and those who died from the disease.
In 2004 China scaled back the estimated number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from nearly a million to 840,000, and then further lowered the figure to 650,000 in 2005.
Experts have said the figures are probably accurate because they are in line with a change in the way data are collected.
Global health officials said earlier this month that the estimated number of people infected with HIV worldwide fell from almost 40 million last year to about 33.2 million this year, the result of a different methodology that shows the AIDS pandemic is losing momentum.
The old numbers were largely based on how many infected pregnant women were at prenatal clinics, as well as projecting the AIDS rates of certain high-risk groups like drug users onto an entire population. Officials said those figures were flawed and are now incorporating more data like national household surveys.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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