China HIV patients on the rise...almost 500,000 are +

he World Health Organization issued a call to action to China Monday over HIV/AIDS as government figures said nearly half a million people are living with the disease or its precursor, with hundreds of thousands more thought to be undiagnosed.

... The figure represents an increase from September 2013, when 434,000 people in China were known to be living with HIV/AIDS. But it was not clear whether the rise was due to an increase in infection, or more cases being diagnosed.

Another 154,000 have died from AIDS over the past three decades, the commission said.

China's National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention last year estimated that as many as 810,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in the country, including those who have not yet been diagnosed, out of a total population of 1.36 billion.

That is a far lower proportion than India, where UNAIDS says there are more two million people living with HIV, in a slighter smaller total population -- although UNAIDS does not give figures for China.