China's top legislature approved an amendment to the law on contagious disease prevention and control on Saturday.

The amended law gives additional financial support for AIDS prevention and control and bans discrimination against patients, virus carriers and suspected carriers of contagious diseases.

"The amended law sums up the lessons that China earned during its fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year and its control of the bird flu outbreak this spring," said Li Yuan, an official with the Legislative Affairs Commission under the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

Li said that the amended law will enhance public health management, especially grass-roots contagious disease prevention and control systems, and will assist medical institutions in taking measure during the outbreak of contagious diseases.

The amended law devotes a specific clause to AIDS prevention against the backdrop of the serious situation the country faces in fighting the disease.

The clause says "governments at all levels must strengthen AIDS prevention and control work in a bid to curb further spread of the disease."

It entrusts the State Council to work out detailed regulations on AIDS prevention and control.

China reported its first AIDS case in 1985. By the end of 2003, China had 840,000 AIDS patients.

Latest statistics show that 11 per cent of Chinese AIDS patients were infected by HIV through blood transfusions.

The amendment also bans illegal blood collection and requires that blood collecting institutions and biological material producers strictly follow State standards and guarantee the quality of blood and blood-related products.

The amendment also calls on medical institutions to tighten management of disposable instruments to prevent infection.

"The law, after being amended, will better safeguard the health of the Chinese people," said Xu Lianzhi, a well-known expert on AIDS prevention and control in China.

Xu said that publicity on the amended law should be effective so that medical knowledge related to the prevention and control of contagious diseases is known by ordinary people.

Xu said that discrimination against patients, virus carriers and suspected carriers of contagious diseases is caused by ignorance.

The latest session of the NPC Standing Committee also passed a bill on electronic signatures which grants such signatures the same legal standing as handwritten signatures and seals in business transactions.

The legislature ratified UNESCO's convention on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and the agreement to fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism between China and Uzbekistan.

(China Daily 08/30/2004 page2)