Vietnam detected 9,978 HIV carriers last year, raising the total number of people having HIV/AIDS since the country's first HIV case reported in December 1990 to 128,367, according to a local health agency on Thursday.

Of the nearly 130,000 people, 25,219 have been AIDS patients, of whom 14,042 have died, the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control under the Health Ministry said, noting that a large number of HIV carriers are in the age bracket of 20-39, and drug addicts or prostitutes.

The country plans to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection rate among its 86-million population to below 0.3 percent by 2010, and keep it unchanged after 2020.

Some pharmaceutical firms in Vietnam have recently intensified production of AIDS drugs so that AIDS patients can have more low-cost medicines, the administration said.

A German-Vietnamese joint venture, Stada Vietnam, has established a new AIDS medicine producing plant in southern Binh Duong province, which meets Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards set by the European Union and the World Health Organization.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2008)