BEIJING Mar 2: Ethnic Chi ncse could be more vulnerable to the AIDS virus because they lack a genetic mutation that helps fight off the virus, state media reported today, reports AFP.

Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Infectious Disease examined a mutation known as CCR5 that has been linked with tougher resistance to the R-5 strain of the HIV virus, the precursor to AIDS, the China Daily

The mutation appears in about one of every 10 people in the United States, but was found ki only one out of every 1.000 Chinese tested by a team led by Professor Wang Fusheng, vice-director of the institute.

They found in that the gene appeared in Just 0.119 per cent of the 1,300 people sampled.

But a Western expert said he did not believe the research showed that Chinese were any more likely to get AIDS because of the many factors involved in transmission and he questioned the accuracy of the paper's report.