China has lowered its estimate of the number of people with HIV/AIDS to 650,000 from 840,000, but international experts have warned the disease may be spreading due to ignorance and because many people are too afraid or too poor to seek help.

The new policy guidelines were approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, and signed by Premier Wen Jiabao, who in 2003 became China's first senior leader to publicly shake hands with AIDS patients.

Wen also made a point of visiting villages in central Henan province, where thousands were infected after donating blood in unsanitary clinics.

No organisation or individual is allowed to discriminate against AIDS patients or their families and AIDS patients will be entitled to free treatment, according to the guidelines published by the official Xinhua news agency.

"This indicates good progress," Joel Rehnstrom, country coordinator of the UNAIDS China office, told Xinhua.

AIDS activist Hu Jia said the new rules did not go far beyond grouping existing regulations under a single heading.

"The problem in China is not the lack of laws but whether these laws will be implemented by local governments," he said.

Images of Chinese President Hu Jintao shaking hands with AIDS patients, intended to dispel discrimination, instead brought mockery for their now-shunned families, a state newspaper reported recently.

Even among better-educated urban residents, nearly 60 percent said they would be "nervous" to have public contact with HIV positive people, a Health Ministry survey has found.

NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY

Patients in rural areas and poor urban patients must receive free anti HIV/AIDS drugs, the guidelines stipulate. They take effect on March 1.

Consultations on preventing infection from mother to baby as well as free treatment must be made available, while children orphaned by AIDS will receive free schooling.

Any official who causes the disease to spread will be punished. Under the new guidelines it also becomes illegal to reveal the identity of someone infected, or their families.

The United Nations had warned that China could have 10 million cases of HIV by 2010 unless it takes steps to educate the public and fight the epidemic.

The WHO says that figure is probably out of date now that the estimate of the number of infections has been lowered.

Still, experts say China cannot afford to be complacent about AIDS given the risk of rising infections through drug injection and sexual contact within an increasingly mobile population.

Political sensitivity and social stigma still surround AIDS in China, and the government's slowness to acknowledge the epidemic contributed to its spread.

Hu, the AIDS activist, said many patients in poor areas of Henan had long been entitled to free medical treatment, but this had been slow to arrive.

"It's important that the government should involve civil, non-government organisations because patients are less afraid of dealing with them," Hu said.

The new guidelines state a need to encourage and support organisations and individuals who promote AIDS-prevention awareness. However, they do not identify the most active NGOs.

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