South China's Guangdong Province set up its provincial-level anti-AIDS working committee Tuesday in Guangzhou.

The committee will supervise the prevention and control work against AIDS/HIV across the province. It is sponsored by 18 departments, including the provincial health department, civil affairs department and public security department.

China spotted the first AIDS/HIV case in 1985 and has been working hard to keep the disease at a low incidence rate. However, spreading of the disease has been picking up speed in recent years and China has reported 840,000 AIDS/HIV cases, according to the Ministry of Health.

Guangdong spotted the first AIDS/HIV patient in 1985 and had reported 5,051 AIDS/HIV cases by the end of year 2003, including 53 deaths, statistics show.

Guangdong Province will set up databases on AIDS/HIV patients and build more laboratories capable of detecting the HIV virus in county-level disease control centers or hospitals, according to Yao Zhibin, director of the Guangdong provincial health department.