Fastest growth in new HIV cases among elderly

Elderly people have become the group seeing the fastest growth in reported HIV infections in China, according to a report released by the World Health Organization on Tuesday, the World AIDS Day.

Some 37,000 people aged 60 or older in China were newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year -- 77 percent of them being male -- accounting for 25 percent of the total number of reported new HIV/AIDS cases, said the report.

The number of newly reported HIV/AIDS cases among males aged 60 or above in China increased by 500 percent between 2010 and last year, the report said.

Unsafe sex was the major cause for HIV infection among elderly males, with 60 percent of them claiming they got infected via commercial sex activities, the report said.

A total of 150,000 people in China were newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year, and the total reported number of people living with HIV/AIDS reached 960,000 by the end of last year.

Throughout the world, 1.7 million people were newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS last year, and 690,000 died due to AIDS-related diseases, according to the WHO.