A small percentage of couples are getting premarital medical check-ups, and the number of hereditary and infectious diseases among infants has been rising.

So, the State Council, will issue a document focusing on how to raise public awareness and to make the checkups more convenient, Wang Bin, director of the Division of Women's Health with the Ministry of Health, said on Friday.

For example, social workers will be available at every registration station to inform couples of the advisability of getting the check-up, Wang said.

He said one of the State Council goals in strengthening the premarital exam is to reduce the rate of hereditary and even sexually transmitted illnesses.

Before the law in China was changed in October 2003, all couples had to show the result of the check-ups to get a certificate.

But since then, for example, in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, only about 3 percent of marriage licence applicants had been examined. In many other places, the rate is 1 percent or lower.

Of all reported HIV/AIDS cases last year, mother-baby infections account for 1 per cent, said Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Absence of the premarital tests removes the last line of defence against those infections, Wu said.

Even so, people still have shown little passion for the campaign.

"So it is not only a question of money but of public awareness," Wang said.

In some places, such as central China's Hubei Province, the government began paying for those tests from late 2004.

But even if the couples have to pay, the cost of such a check-up is about 100 yuan (US$12), not a burden for most couples. In rural areas, a family usually spends at least 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) on a wedding.

The document will caution against such diseases as hepatitis, syphilis, and tuberculosis, and will suggest that patients delay their marriage if treatment for at least one of those diseases is necessary.

(China Daily February 25, 2006)