A senior Chinese family planning official said on Thursday that China has 120,000 technicians and 1 million female volunteers now working in rural areas for HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Zhao Baige, vice director of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, said at a press conference that the one million-member team will play an important role in China's HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

She said efforts to promote the use of condoms and stem other channels for spreading HIV/AIDS have been taken in eight provinces under the great help of the United Nations, and remarkable progress has been made.

China has around 840,000 HIV/AIDS cases, and most HIV infections are blamed on intravenous drug use and botched blood-selling schemes in the 1990s, which in some cases ravaged entire villages.

Source: Xinhua