"The epidemic is at a critical point of spreading from high-risk groups to common people," Wu said at a national HIV/AIDS control conference in Beijing.

Prevention and control work is at a vital stage, said Wu, who is also China's health minister.

"We can completely contain the momentum if we take it seriously. Otherwise, we will lose this best, fleeting opportunity," she warned health officials from various regions of the country.

"The consequences will be quite serious," said Wu, whose ministry has paid unprecedented attention to the HIV/AIDS issue, especially since the second half of last year after SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) greatly challenged China's laggard public health system.

The possible consequences of not controlling the HIV/AIDS outbreak are stunning, experts say. By 2010, millions could be infected. The worst estimates put the number of infected people at 10 million if the current situation remains uncontrolled.

Wu's ministry estimates that by the middle of last year, there were 840,000 HIV carriers and AIDS sufferers, including 80,000 patients in the Chinese mainland's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

And the deadly epidemic has been increasing by two digits annually.

Wu is echoed by Yip Ray, director of the China Office of China-US AIDS Prevention and Care Project, who says that China still has a "window" of opportunity to effectively contain the virus spreading from high-risk groups to the general public.

A very difficult task in preventing the virus from spiralling upward is that nearly 90 per cent of those infected do not know they have the disease, Yip said.

Most of those infected with HIV in the mainland are among high-risk groups, including drug users, illegal blood donors, and prostitutes.

Moreover, about 70 per cent are in poverty-stricken areas. And nearly 80 per cent of them have been not able to get necessary medical treatment, experts said.

Since July 2003, the central government has promised to provide free anti-virus medicines and medical services to all poverty-stricken HIV carriers, hoping to get them to come forward.

More than 7,000 patients have been covered by such services. And the free treatment is expected to reach up to 40,000 people soon, said Zhang Fujie, an expert from the China's Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, China announced a list of 51 county-level regions which are serving as pilot zones for AIDS prevention and treatment.

The zones, set up by the Health Ministry in 2003, have relatively bigger AIDS problems among China's 2,000-plus counties.

Most of those infected in the pilot programme areas are farmers infected by the virus in early 1990s when they sold their blood plasma to illegal blood stations.

In Henan Province, Central China, provincial officials have been sent to help poor AIDS-suffering farmers in dozens of villages.

Wu asked local officials to strengthen their efforts in public education, fight illegal blood sales, spread condom and clean needles among high-risk people, and to push surveillance and monitoring of the epidemic.

"It must be reported timely and faithfully. And any people who intend to hide the epidemic should take responsibility and will be severely punished," she noted.