The amendment to the 15-year-old law represents "an institutional start to eliminate the stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients", which helps to spread the disease, a member of the standing committee of the National People's Congress was quoted as saying.

China has more than 300 laws and regulations on AIDS prevention and control framed by both central and local governments, the news agency said.

Some of the regulations still treat AIDS as a venereal disease and impose restrictions on employment, education and marriage rights as well as privacy, the report added.

Koen Vanormelingen, chief of the Health and Nutrition Department in Unicef's China office, said discrimination against HIV-positive people and AIDS sufferers was one of the key obstacles in China's fight against the disease.

Quoting experts' forecasts, Xinhua added that the number of HIV cases in China would reach ten million in 2010 "in the best case" and could rise to 20 million "if drastic actions were not immediately taken"

TERRA.WIRE