The number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the country reached 376 in the first half of 2007, off 5.5 percent from the same period of 2006, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
The center said that 93.1 percent of the new infections were found among males. Infections among foreigners stood at 44. The first reported HIV/AIDS case in the country was in 1985.
As of June 30, 4,956 South Koreans had contracted the disease, of which 905 died.
The new HIV/AIDS cases resulted mainly from unsafe sex, a spokesman of the center said.
In 2005, the rate of condom use stood at 23 percent, far lower than 40-60 percent for other countries, he said.
``We are making efforts to raise public awareness of the disease and promote the use of condoms through education to curb the spread of the deadly disease,’’ said the spokesman.