Shanghai is considering adding an AIDS test in the medical examinations required for local people applying for marriage, today's Laodong Daily cited city's medical experts as saying.

The test is to diagnose and caution AIDS infected people before their marriage, and improve quality of life in the city, as the number of people infected with or carrying the AIDS virus is rising in China, said a doctor surnamed Song, with Shanghai Institute of Family Planning Instruction.

The existing items involved in the pre-marriage exams include gynecological exams, urine and blood tests and tests for venereal diseases, Dr. Song said.

"An increasing number of young people come to us to test for AIDS and venereal diseases before the required pre-marriage exams," said Dr. Song, "a fact that indicates local people's mounting consciousness of these infectious and sometimes deadly diseases."

Shanghai has applied AIDS tests in cross-country marriages as required by the city's civil affairs bureau, he noted.

AIDS patients have been detected each year since the first case was reported in 1990 and some of these are among local couples.

Reports of venereal diseases have increased in the pre-marriage exams, Dr. Song said, with a rate ranging between 2 to 5 percent of the total number examined.

(eastday.com November 26, 2002)