China has officially admitted, through its state-run Xinhua news agency, that its confirmed cases of HIV infection and full-blown AIDS have significantly jumped over the past 25 years.

Quoting the latest report from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Xinhua reported that as of this year, 48,000 new cases have been reported with high prevalence reported among university students.

Centre director Wu Zunyou noted too that rising incidence of AIDS has also been reported among older Chinese males.

As in the case of many countries struggling with the AIDS epidemic, sexual transmission now accounts for 82 percent of infections.

The new figures represent a huge leap from the 11.6 percent that the state has recorded between 1985 and 2005, when most cases were IV-drug-linked, Wu added.

"The distribution of HIV/AIDS cases in our country is now wider and more scattered than ever, posing great difficulties for prevention and control efforts," the centre chief was quoted by Reuters as saying Wednesday.

The agency reported the number of AIDS cases among men over 60 soared from 483 in 2005 to 3,031 as of last year while infections reported among college students also spiked in significant proportions within the same period.

The most disturbing trend, Wu stressed, is the case of relatively older men acquiring the virus, which is a source of concern owing to their lesser resistance to infections that come with the disease.

The overall picture, according to Xinhua, will witness a dramatic change by year end as the combined cases of HIV infection and full-blown AIDS should reach 780,000 from its present level of 346,000.

Previously secretive on its AIDS epidemic, China has abandoned that failed policy launched spirited efforts to check the spread of the disease and ensure that drugs against AIDS become more accessible.

Health experts are in agreement that Beijing has made considerable headway in addressing the AIDS epidemic, including combating discrimination in its socially conservative society.