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UAE to Serve as Model with Anti-Aids Law

ABU DHABI - A joint committee to hammer out an Anti-Aids draft law has been set up by the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO), Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Quttami, Minister of Health told Khaleej Times on Thursday.

“The bill will help confine the deadly ailment to the narrowest possible levels, and make the UAE free of the deadly ailment within the next few years,” he said.

In reply to a question on the outlines of the draft law, he said, “It will be distinctive in every issue it handles, especially in respecting patients’ rights and protecting the Aids patients’ from themselves and the virus they carry, in a way that it will not be infected to others.”

“The law will also ban isolating HIV patients from the society, and create a healthy atmosphere for them to interact in the society,” he said, adding that the law will impose certain obligations on the bodies concerned to ensure detecting the disease at the earliest stage possible to handle it practically, medically and humanely in a way that complies with the medical ethics and human rights principles.

The draft law, he said, will set an international example, as WHO is cooperating with the Ministry of Health in preparing it.

It will be unique as, apart from Jordan’s law on AIDS which was issued this year, the entire Middle East lacks such statutes, he said.

There were several attempts made by other countries in the region to issue anti-Aids law, he said, which show the importance of handling the disease within the framework of law.

The law will be binding, but its features have not been outlined yet. Only its objectives which have been specified precisely.

The Ministry will submit it to the medical and legislative entities for approval and issuance this year, he added.

adel@khaleejtimes.com

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