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China issues guidelines on tackling HIV/AIDS
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-12 10:57
BEIJING (AFP) - China issued its first detailed policy guidelines on dealing
with the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, including requiring local governments to offer free
drugs and testing.
A person waits for
a train in front of an AIDS awareness poster in a Beijing subway station
last month. [AFP] | The cabinet, the State
Council, issued a statute on the prevention and control of AIDS which spells out
the responsibilities of governments at all levels and the rights of carriers,
the Xinhua news agency said.
Local governments above the county-level must provide free anti-HIV/AIDS
drugs for rural AIDS patients and underprivileged urban patients, according to
the guidelines on the State Council's website.
They must also offer free treatment and consultations on prevention of
mother-baby infection to pregnant women and new mothers, the statute says.
Those who seek information and testing should be given those services for
free and no department can reveal carriers' identities or personal information
without their permission.
AIDS orphans should receive free tuition and be exempt from paying fees,
including the cost of books, while those officials who cause the disease to
spread in anyway will be punished or prosecuted, the guidelines say.
Approved by the State Council on January 18, the rules will go into effect as
of March 1.
The move comes as the government grapples with how to stop the spread of the
epidemic as the number of known cases in China was around 650,000, down
from a government estimate in 2003 of 840,000, according to findings of a study
released by China's health ministry, the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS
last month.
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