Northwest China's Gansu Province reported 199 new HIV carriers in the past year, 42 more than the year before. Forty were AIDS patients, 30 of whom have died, according to Gansu Provincial Committee for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Information from the committee shows that the killer disease is spreading rapidly from high-risk groups, including sex workers and drug addicts, to ordinary people, with the number of people contracting the virus through sex jumping by 83.3 percent last year.

To curb the spread of the disease, each of the province's 14 cities and prefectures has set up special committee for prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Responding to the call of the provincial health bureau and finance bureau, all disease control centers in the province have began offering free tests on HIV virus and free consultation services since October.

To date, more than 400 people have received free tests, two of them positive.

The Chinese government has said it attaches great importance to curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS. It encourages its citizens to care for and treat equally HIV carriers and at the same time, has adopted a series of measures including free tests and launching HIV/AIDS prevention programs in pilot counties.

Ministry of Health figures say there are 840,000 HIV carriers on the Chinese mainland, 80,000 of whom have AIDS.