Eight volunteers are due to receive the phase-one clinical test of China's self-development AIDS vaccine Saturday morning, which observers see marks China's latest progress in research into AIDS prevention and control.
  
Encouraging news also came from the ongoing annual session of the national advisory body, CPPCC, that China has completed the drafting of regulations on AIDS prevention and control across the country.
  
"The draft of the regulations has been sent to various sides for comments and advices," said Shao Yiming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
  
The draft regulations have outlined the principles and policies for China's battle against the deadly epidemic, and also explicitly defined the roles and responsibilities of various government departments in AIDS prevention and control, said Shao, a senior expert with the sexually-transmitted diseases and AIDS division of China Disease Control Center.
  
"The draft regulations stipulate that any government departments or medical institutions failing to fulfill their due responsibilities in AIDS prevention and control shall be subject to administrative punishment and even legal penalties," added Shao.
  
However, the advisor regretted that the draft regulations were not stringent enough on social discriminations against the AIDS patients or HIV carriers.
  
"Though it has been written in the draft that the AIDS victims shall not be discriminated against and their rights and interests shall not be violated, there is no detailed penalties for such activities provided in the regulations," explained Shao.
  
With no concrete and feasible punitive measures in place, the country's AIDS patients and HIV carriers, who are often sacked by their employers or shunned from schools for their disease, will remain vulnerable in the face of discrimination from either individuals or institutions, Shao stressed.
  
To date there has been no case in China in which an AIDS patient or HIV carrier stands up against social discrimination, mainly because of a "lack of solid legal protection" for them, said Shao.
  
"We must grant AIDS patients and HIV carriers a powerful legal weapon to defend their legitimate rights and interests," he said, calling for a revision of the draft regulations before promulgation.
  
China reported its first AIDS case in 1985 and now has an estimated 840,000 HIV carriers and AIDS patients.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2005)