CHINA: As part of its pledge to do more to combat HIV/Aids, China has issued new rules which ban discrimination against patients and require authorities to provide free testing and treatment.
The new rules on Aids prevention and control were issued by China's cabinet, the State Council, and are due to take effect from March 1st, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
Under the new rules, no organisation or individual is allowed to discriminate against Aids patients or their families and Aids patients will be entitled to free treatment.
"This indicates a good progress. I am pleased to see the final report, which constitutes a crucial part of the country's overall anti-Aids strategy," Joel Rehnstrom, UNAids China office, was quoted as saying on Xinhua.
China has lowered its estimate of the number with HIV/Aids to 650,000 from 840,000, but international experts have warned the disease may be spreading due to ignorance and because many people are too afraid or poor to seek help.
The UN has warned that China could have 10 million cases of HIV by 2010 unless it takes steps to educate the public and fight the epidemic.
The WHO says that figure is probably out of date now that the estimate of the number of infections has been lowered, but urged vigilance in China's increasingly mobile society.
Aids overtook hepatitis B as China's third-deadliest infectious disease last year, the government said yesterday. Tuberculosis was the country's No 1 infectious killer in 2005, followed by rabies, according to ministry figures.
The new guidelines were signed by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who in 2003 became China's first senior leader to publicly shake hands with Aids patients, marking a significant change in government policy.
Mr Wen also visited villages in central Henan province, where thousands were infected after donating blood in unsanitary clinics.
A health ministry survey found that even among better-educated city dwellers, nearly 60 per cent were "nervous" to have public contact with HIV positive people.
Under the guidelines, patients in rural areas and poor urban patients must receive free anti- HIV/Aids drugs. Consultations on preventing infection from mother to baby must be made available.