The vice governor of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Wu Xiaoqing, said efforts are being strengthened to control the spread of HIV, including new regulations on informing the spouses of those who test positive, reported Xinhua News Agency last Thursday.

The new regulations issued this month by the provincial health department stipulate that spouses must be told if their partner has a positive HIV test result. If the person tested does not do this within a month after receiving the result, the lab will do it for him or her.

Chen Juemin, health department director, said the measure is expected to boost monitoring, behavior intervention and treatment.

Wu said that the focus of this year's prevention and control work will be to improve monitoring, with 15 city-level and 102 county-level HIV testing laboratories being built.

People with HIV/AIDS on low incomes will be offered free treatment and support. Children who are HIV positive, or those from families affected by HIV/AIDS, will also be able to have access to free schooling, said Wu.

The vice governor said that the province will continue its pilot program providing methadone to drug users in order to reduce infections through the sharing of injecting equipment, as well as being determined to crack down on the illegal blood trading.

Programs providing free condoms in hotels and entertainment venues and free needle exchanges were launched in the province last year. They were welcomed by many as a pragmatic and potentially effective way to help prevent transmission, though viewed as controversial by some.

The province, neighboring the "Golden Triangle" of drug production between Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, recorded its first HIV positive test result in 1989 and presently has over 17,000 people known to have HIV.

This makes Yunnan second only to Henan Province, which has reported more than 20,000 cases, in the whole of China.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2005)