Majority of newly infected on mainland heterosexual

When Wang Long began work raising awareness of HIV and Aids in Hangzhou's gay community in 2004, barely 1 per cent of those who volunteered to be tested carried the virus or had the disease.

Since then, the rate of infection among male homosexuals has roughly doubled every two years - to 3.65 per cent in 2006, 7 per cent in 2008 and 17 per cent last year, says Wang, head of a safe-sex advocacy group called Zhejiang Gay Men's Love Team.

'Hangzhou is not the worst place,' he says. 'Infection rates among men having sex with men in cities like Chongqing are even more alarming.'

'Even more worrisome is that authorities have yet to understand the gravity of the situation.'

Wang said organisations such as his own, like others working with the gay community, received no government support.

The harsh reality of rising infection rates has underscored the government's failure to mobilise NGOs working with the gay community, despite its progress elsewhere in containing a virus which, according to the official estimate, has infected 740,000 people.