China's Yunnan Province will require annual AIDS tests for people working in hotels, nightclubs and other entertainment outlets, a local official and the Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.
Under the new rules, announced on Monday and effective immediately, those testing positive will be fired, Xinhua said.
The free tests are meant to identify people with HIV and AIDS in order to provide them with treatment and curb the disease's spread, said Wang Yinsheng, an official with the Yunnan AIDS Prevention Center.
"Identifying this special group of people helps to reduce the chance of spreading and helps them to get timely treatment," Wang said.
Those who test positive for HIV, AIDS or for venereal diseases would be denied a certificate of good health, without which they cannot legally work in the hospitality or service industries, Xinhua said.
Employees of hotels, bath houses, beauty salons, night clubs and other entertainment venues are covered by the rules, which appeared to be an implicit official recognition of the role such facilities play in the country's thriving sex industry.
Wang said health authorities wouldn't insist that those found to be infected be fired. They could instead be moved to jobs not involving contact with the public, he said.
Yunnan has China's second largest population of registered AIDS sufferers -- 18,000 according to official figures.
The province has taken some of the country's most aggressive response measures, including promoting condom use and clean needles and setting up AIDS monitoring and treatment centers.
Most of the 1 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in China became so through intravenous drug use, although unsanitary blood-buying schemes mainly in Henan Province -- the worst affected area -- accounted for large numbers as well. Henan has also mandated AIDS tests for people in service industries.
Experts warn that sexual contact is an increasingly common route of transmission.
China for years hid its AIDS outbreak as a national shame, but has become increasingly open amid warnings that the disease is spreading from high-risk groups such as drug users and prostitutes to the general population.
The UN AIDS agency says the number of infected people in China could rise to 10 million by 2010 unless urgent action is taken.
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