Photo: People.cn

KUNMING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Yunnan Province, a major battleground against HIV/AIDS and drugs, continued to register fewer new HIV infections in the first 10 months of the year.

The provincial bureau of AIDS prevention and control said Friday that 8,723 new HIV cases were logged from January to October, down 7.3 percent year on year despite the increased number of test-takers.

Previously, the border province had seen a downward trend in newly registered HIV cases for five consecutive years, with officials saying the epidemic had been put under effective control.

Xu Yonggang, head of the bureau, said the percentage of new infections by intravenous drug users fell from 15.6 percent in 2012 to 4.1 percent in 2018. It further declined to 2.8 percent in the January-October period this year.

Transmissions through sex were responsible for 96 percent of new infections, edging up from last year's 94.4 percent. Those aged 60 or above climbed up to constitute 15.8 percent of new cases.

As of Oct. 31, a total of 117,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Yunnan, the official said.

Intravenous drug use used to be a major cause of HIV infections in Yunnan, as it borders the Golden Triangle, an area notorious for narcotics, in Southeast Asia.