China's HIV timebomb

50,000 - Chinese estimates 600,000 - WHO estimates 10 million - WHO projection for 2010

It is the most detailed official acknowledgement yet of the scale of a scandal which has affected poor rural areas in the central province of Henan.

Officials said that over 300 people had been affected there in one village alone.

Cover up

For months the Chinese Government has tried to cover up the HIV blood scandal in Henan. Even now officials try to stop reporters visiting the area.

Thousands have been infected with HIV through selling blood

But last month, the government acknowledged there was a problem.

Now Mr Yin, who was sent to the region to investigate, has told reporters in Beijing that in the worst affected village close to 20% of residents had HIV, and of those who had sold blood, 43%, or almost 250 people, were infected.

He said a survey in other local villages showed a similar incidence.

For many years, villagers in Henan sold blood to illegal traders who pooled the blood from different donors in large vats, extracted the plasma, and re-injected the remaining mixture into the donors.

Screening programme

The Chinese Government recently announced it would spend over $100m to improve the screening of blood used in transfusions, raising some hopes among Aids experts that the scandal may be forcing the authorities to take the problem more seriously.

Yin: "A very serious epidemic"

The government says intravenous drug use is still the main source of HIV infection, and Mr Yin said more than a third of drug users still share needles.

He also gave new figures suggesting that only 9% of Chinese prostitutes insisted that their clients used condoms - an alarming statistic in a nation where prostitution is widespread.

The minister said HIV infection among prostitutes rose to 1.3%, a level which experts say could lead to a rapid spread of the virus.