The bodies of people with HIV are reportedly being segregated in Israeli funeral homes, and their coffins covered in concrete.

Pink News reports the Israeli Ministry of Health has ordered the corpses of people who had HIV/AIDS be tagged, separated and encased in concrete.

Guidelines states that people who had HIV AIDS and other infectious diseases "should be put in a plastic bag labelled with their status and put in an ambulance separate to anyone else, including health professionals."

The Hebrew-language paper Israel Hayom adds that if bodies are not covered in concrete they must be buried at least 30 feet from anyone else.

The guidelines came to light after the family of an HIV-positive woman discovered her body had been treated differently because of her status.

Allegedly, the rules are in place to protect others from contracting infectious diseases, though there is no scientific evidence HIV can be transmitted through the air or via a buried body.

The Israeli AIDS Task Force says the guidelines are “causing an intensification of the already severe stigmatization of AIDS patients."

“There is no medical justification that ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers should be separated, because there is no risk of contagion," said Dr. Yuval Livnat.

“[These] guidelines have caused the resulting hysteria, probably, and unfortunately, indicate the stigma that surrounds the disease without medical justification.”

In the wake of the controversy, the Ministry of Health insisted the directions were never meant to be official policy, but rather were just part of a draft proposal on the handling of bodies of people with infectious diseases.

Israel has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research, and approved PrEP as preventative treatment use earlier this year.

But Yaakov Litzman, the head of Israel's Ministry of Health, has attacked the LGBT community in the past

In February, he compared the LGBT community to Jews who worshipped the golden calf in the Old Testament.