ZONE:

A total of 5,121 people in Japan have reportedly tested positive for HIV through December of 2002, an increase of 139 from three months earlier, Japan's health authorities said in a statement Friday.

Seventy-seven of the new cases were transmitted via male-to-male sexual contact, the Associated Press quotes Makoto Iwakura of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Forty-five of the new cases were contracted through heterosexual contact.

There were no reported cases of transmission through infected needles in Japan, where drug use of that kind is relatively rare.

During the October to December period, 61 HIV-positive people developed full-blown AIDS, bringing Japan's total number of AIDS patients to 2,549. Four other patients died from AIDS in the period, Mr Iwakura added.

Actual figures are said to be much higher than those quoted, given the pronounced social stigma in Japan still associated with the disease and the Japanese shy away from having HIV tests for fear of discrimination if they are found positive.

The ministry's committee on AIDS surveillance meets every three months to compile statistics since 1984 when Japan's first AIDS patient was diagnosed.