China will expand a pilot program that aims to stop the transmission of AIDS from mother to child, curbing the rapid increase of new born infants infected with HIV.

Experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the program will be expanded from eight projects in five provinces to 85 in 15 provinces at the on-going symposium on AIDS and other infectious diseases at Nanning, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Currently, similar projects have been launched in high-risk regions.

In these areas, women who are pregnant or in labor lack access to good doctors and HIV-positive women cannot obtain free medicines used block the transmission of AIDS from mother to child.

In some regions of China, mother to child transmission has increased from 0.1 percent to 0.6 percent.

Source: CRI