The Chinese State Council issued a statute on the prevention and control of AIDS on Sunday, stipulating relevant duties of all-level governments and defining the rights and obligations of the HIV carriers and AIDS patients.

The statute falls into seven chapters, including general rules, publicity and education, prevention and control, cure and relief, guarantee measures, legal responsibilities and supplementary articles.

Governments above the county-level must provide free anti-HIV/AIDS drugs for rural AIDS patients and underprivileged urban patients, and offer free treatments and consultations on prevention of the mother-baby infection to pregnant and lying-in women, the statute says.

HIV carriers and AIDS patients must take measures to prevent infecting other people and must not spread AIDS deliberately by any means, according to the statue, which was approved by the State Council on January 18 and will work as of March 1.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2006)