It has been revealed that China is planning to ban people with HIV from using spas, hot springs and public bathhouses following the release of a draft regulation online.

Discrimination against those in China with HIV and AIDS has been an issue for years, specifically in hospitals and workplaces, where people have been refused treatments and others have lost their jobs due to state law prohibiting employment as a civil servant if you are HIV positive.

The new draft regulation, which has received condemnation from the United Nations’ AIDS agency (UNAIDS), orders spas and similar premises in China to display signs prohibiting people ‘with sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and infectious skin diseases’.

While there is no risk of transmitting the HIV virus in a spa or bath house setting, the new draft legislation could affect up to 780,000 people living in China with HIV.

An UNAIDS statement said that the body “recommend that restrictions preventing people living with HIV from accessing bathhouses, spas and other similar facilities be removed from the final draft of the policy.”

Several campaign groups have also spoken out against the proposal, with a number of NGOs seeking to collaborate on a response.