The provincial public security department plans to add some 10,000 beds to drug rehabilitation centers directly under its administration to provide separate facilities for HIV-infected inmates, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

This is to curb the spread of AIDS among those recovering from drug addiction, the report said.

The number of HIV-carriers has been increasing in recent years, a public security department spokesman was quoted as saying. According to incomplete statistics from 1999 to March 2002, 874 inmates in forced rehabilitation centers had been diagnosed with AIDS. The actual number was probably much larger, the spokesman said.

This dangerous trend posed a grave threat to uninfected inmates, and caused concern for deputies to people's congresses. Zhang Guoying, a deputy member to the provincial people's congress, submitted a proposal to the congress earlier this year calling for "urgent action."

The province will allocate 180 million yuan (US$22 million) for the project, the report said.

(Shenzhen Daily May 17, 2004)