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Spouses Told of HIV Test Results in Yunnan

The vice-governor of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Wu Xiaoqing, said more is being done to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, including the promulgation of new regulations that require the notification of spouses of those who test positive for HIV, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.

The new regulation, issued by the provincial health department, stipulates that people who have a positive HIV test result must tell their spouses within a month. If the afflicted do not do so, the lab will do it for them.

People with HIV/AIDS who have low incomes will be offered free treatment and support. HIV-positive children, or children from families affected by HIV/AIDS, will get free access to schooling.

The vice-governor said the province-with total cases second only to Henan Province's 20,000--will continue its pilot programme by providing methadone to drug users to reduce infections through the sharing of injecting equipment, and by determinedly cracking down on illegal blood trading. Programmes providing free condoms in hotels and at entertainment venues and free needle exchanges were launched in the province last year.

The province, neighbouring the infamous "Golden Triangle" of drug production between Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, recorded its first HIV-positive test result in 1989. More than 17,000 people are now known to have HIV.