Three hundred and twelve travelers were found to be HIV positive in the first seven months of this year, up 19 percent year-on-year, a report released Tuesday showed.

They were among 756,000 travelers who received random blood checks at border crossings, according to the report compiled by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

The increase in positive cases was mainly due to the growth in the number of people who underwent the checks, Xia Wenjun, a press officer with the administration, said.

Such random checks were conducted on only 65,900 travelers in the same period last year.

Xia said such checks were usually conducted among high-risk groups, or those who appeared to have the symptoms. She would not elaborate.

The report failed to say how many of the HIV positive travelers were foreigners.

Under current laws and regulations of China, foreigners with HIV/AIDS are generally banned from entering the country, while the Chinese are referred to local disease control and prevention agencies.

The HIV/AIDS ban is expected to be lifted next year on foreigners entering China, the Ministry of Health said earlier.

The report also said border quality and quarantine officers checked 9.6 million batches of products from January to July this year, and found 59,720 of them to be substandard. The rate is about the same as the corresponding period last year.

Inbound, metallic minerals, cotton and vegetable oil were the top three problematic products. They mainly concerned not meeting requirements as stipulated in contracts, quality defects and quantity shortage. The report said the products were mainly from India, the United States, Australia, Japan and Thailand.

Outbound, garments, shoes and small home appliances were found to be high-risk products. Quality defects, improper design and safety concerns were the major problems.

The products were mainly destined for Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany and Russia, the report said.

(China Daily August 27, 2008)