East China's Zhejiang province has scrapped its mandatory HIV testing for drug addicts, a move seen as great progress in protecting privacy.
Under current regulations for HIV/AIDS prevention and control in Zhejiang, law enforcement officers should notify local disease prevention and control departments after arresting drug addicts, and work with them to carry out mandatory HIV tests on drug addicts.
Lu Hanfu, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress, said mandatory HIV testing of drug addicts has no legal basis, which is the reason the commission made the revision.
The move came after the Administrative Coercion Law - which aims to provide a legal basis to guarantee and supervise the administrative bodies' performance - took effect this year. The law also aims to protect the rights and interests of citizens.
"The country hasn't actually enacted any special laws or regulations in carrying out mandatory HIV testing on drug addicts," Lu said.
According to current regulations in China, the State should implement voluntary HIV counseling and testing. Many provinces and cities, however, stipulate mandatory HIV testing for drug addicts.
For example, Jiangsu's provincial regulation stipulates that the public security bureaus, judicial departments and health departments should carry out HIV tests for arrested prostitutes and drug addicts.
Shaanxi province stipulates that the public security department should notify the local disease prevention and control department when prostitutes and drug addicts are arrested. After receiving the notice, disease prevention and control departments should carry out HIV tests under the assistance of public security departments.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health showed a rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, and the HIV infection rate through drug use dropped to 38.5 percent in 2008 from about 70 percent in 2000.
Drug addicts are classified as a high-risk group for HIV infection, and are also the focus of HIV/AIDS prevention work.
"So far, mandatory HIV testing for drug addicts is a common practice across the country. The removal of the rule can be seen as major progress in protecting the individual privacy of drug addicts," said Liu Yige, a Beijing lawyer who provides legal consultation in a civil organization.
"Once their personal information is disclosed, it will bring uncountable harm for drug addicts, making it harder for them to return to normal life," Liu said, noting that other provinces and cities should follow Zhejiang's example.
But some experts said the abolition of the rule may make it more difficult to prevent and control the spread of HIV among high-risk groups, and they called for new rules.
"From the point of HIV/AIDS prevention and control, new legal measures with higher legal effect should be set up to make up for the absence of HIV/AIDS management," Chu Chenge, associate professor at Northwest University of Politics and Law, said.
