The Beijing Municipal Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine on Tuesday announced that they had discovered 19 HIV carriers during routine inspection so far this year.

AIDS virus has been spreading rapidly in China since the first AIDS case was spotted in the country in 1985.

Apart from stemming the exodus of HIV carriers from China, the municipal administration has stepped up the entry inspection and quarantine at its land ports and airports to prevent HIV carriers from entering the national capital.

Inspection and quarantine officers with the administration have carried out HIV monitoring among high-risk groups, with the number of people amounting to approximately 160,000, in the past three years, of whom, 53 have been diagnosed as HIV positive, according to sources from the administration.

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2003)