UAE TO CRAFT ANTI-AIDS LAW

DUBAI, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken steps
to draft an anti-AIDS law.

UAE's Health Minister Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Quttami said the proposed
legislation would help confine the deadly ailment to the narrowest possible l
evels, and make the UAE free of the disease within the next few years.

The law sought to ban isolating HIV patients from the society as well as
to create a healthy atmosphere for them to interact in the society, he said in
comments carried by Khaleej Times daily.

According to Al Quttami, his ministry and the World Health Organisation had
set up a joint committee to hammer out the anti-AIDS draft law.

He said the law would impose certain obligations on the bodies concerned to
ensure that the disease was detected at the earliest stage possible and handled
practically, medically and humanely according to medical ethics and human
rights principles.

"The ministry will submit it to the medical and legislative entities for
approval and issuance this year," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
-- BERNAMA