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A hard up retired couple from southwest China's Yunnan province, which has the most HIV cases in the country, tested positive for HIV last year.

But what concerns them most is whether their privacy can be protected. "Our bodies have been seriously harmed, and we cannot stand any more spiritual damage," said the wife.

According to the couple, the virus may have come from a surgical operation 10 year ago during which the wife received a contaminated blood transfusion.

Because they have no money for expensive medicine, the couple had to join an HIV/AIDS drugs trial launched by Chinese and American scientists.

But what worries them is discrimination from society. "We are afraid of being ostracized by our neighbors," murmured the wife with tears in her eyes.

According to the director of the China group of the UN program on HIV/AIDS, "rampant discrimination, which inhibits people from voluntarily seeking advice and the testing of possible HIV carriers, is a major reason for the rapidly increasing spread of AIDS in China."

About 1 million Chinese have contracted the AIDS virus, according to a report released by China's Ministry of Health. If no effective counter measures were implemented, the number of Chinese with HIV/AIDS could soar to 10 million by the end of the decade, the latest UN report said.

Xia Guomei, a Chinese consultant with the UN program on HIV/AIDS, said: "We must change our traditional ideas, which link AIDS with morality and property. Only when the whole of society respects the rights of HIV carriers and AIDS patients can China slow down the rapid spread of AIDS."

Although a five-year action plan for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS (2001-2005) issued last year stipulates that AIDS should be covered by medical insurance the same as other diseases, rarely do AIDS patients benefit from this kind of policy because of the lack of privacy protection in China.

"I have never met any AIDS patient who applied for financial support from their medical insurance," said a doctor surnamed Chen at Youan Hospital in Beijing, which treats several hundred AIDS patients per year.

Privacy for AIDS patients is a hot issue in China. Most people agree that privacy for such patients should be respected, but at the same time they find it difficult to accept that an anonymous HIV carrier could be their colleague or neighbor.

The five-year action plan stipulates that "seeking medical advice anonymously should be promoted all over the country" and "HIV carriers and AIDS patients should be treated sympathetically."

Most experts believe that an effective system of privacy protection is necessary for AIDS prevention.