BEIJING, June 14 -- China has drafted a new law to protect people infected with the AIDS virus in a country where discrimination against those suffering from the condition is rife, a senior Chinese health official said on Monday.

    "Stigma and discrimination are still prevalent," Vice Health Minister Wang Longde told a forum in Shanghai. "It is one of the main stumbling blocks to preventing the spread of AIDS."

    Last year, Chinese President Hu Jintao shook hands with AIDS patients at a hospital in Beijing, and Premier Wen Jiabao this year spent Lunar New Year with impoverished sufferers of the disease.

    Nearly 60 percent of urban residents would be "nervously afraid" to have contact with HIV positive people in public, the Ministry of Health found in a survey last year, underlining the fear and ignorance surrounding the disease.

    The Ministry of Health now expects the new law, specifically to protect the rights of those infected and their families, to come into effect by the end of this year, Wang said.

    "There is a widespread recognition of AIDS, but an almost complete lack of knowledge about it," he added.

    Last year, China passed its first law to try and ensure victims of infectious disease such as AIDS or SARS were not discriminated against.

    A Chinese expect warned last week that China faces a tragic surge in AIDS/HIV cases unless it curbs the spread of the disease among the vast country's transient rural workforce, estimated at about 100 million people.

(Source: China Daily/Agencies)