33.4 mln people infected with AIDS virus worldwide

Today is World AIDS Day. And the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, has mixed news to share with the world.

Data released last week show an estimated 33.4 million people worldwide are infected with the virus. Among them, 2.7 million were newly infected.

Two million people died of AIDS related illness in 2008. On the other hand, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17 percent over the past eight years.

The most progress has been seen in sub-Saharan Africa. China's first AIDS case was reported in 1985.

By the end of October, the country had registered just under 320-thousand people with HIV/AIDS, and reported nearly 50-thousand deaths.