BEIJING, China (AP) – China yesterday issued its first official guidelines on how to prevent and control the spread of the AIDS virus, mandating free testing and medication for the country’s poor.

The statute issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, protects HIV carriers and AIDS patients from discrimination, and criminalises intentionally spreading the disease, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The law, which takes effect March 1, holds local governments responsible for providing free drugs for impoverished patients in the countryside and in the cities. Local governments must also offer free consultations and treatment to infected pregnant women, Xinhua said.

The move comes a month after the government announced that 70,000 people contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in 2005. By the end of last year, there were an estimated 650,000 people living with the HIV virus in China, 75,000 of whom had full-blown AIDS, according to the official figures.

China estimated in 2003 that it had 840,000 HIV-positive people and 84,000 with full-blown AIDS.

International experts warned that the new figures did not mean the situation was less critical.

Most of the new cases were intravenous drug users or sex workers and their clients. But the figures showed that there was also a growing number of infected pregnant mothers and spouses of the clients of sex workers.

The new regulation protects the rights and privacy of AIDS patients and HIV carriers, as well as their relatives, Xinhua said.

Their rights of marriage, employment, medical care and education are guaranteed, Xinhua said.

But the guidelines also holds people with HIV responsible for telling spouses, sexual partners and doctors about their infection.

Anyone found intentionally infecting others would be punished, Xinhua said.