BEIJING -- Chinese scientists are developing new methods like spraying or dropping hepatitis vaccines into people's noses to replace traditional injections, according to a leading expert on immunology.

Such researches were sponsored by a key national science project, according to Wen Yumei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also the chairwoman of the 14th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease, which is scheduled to be held in Shanghai next July.

At a press conference held here Friday for the symposium, experts believed that broad-coverage inoculations is an effective way in facilitating the country's goal in controlling Hepatitis B.

China's Ministry of Health has also credited its national immunization program for having protected about 80 million people from being infected with the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the 19 years after 1992.

Recent report showed that about 93 million Chinese are HBV carriers, accounting for more than a quarter of the world's total.