Video: China：264,000 living with
HIV/AIDS
Photos:World AIDS Day commemorated
in China
By Chinese media Writer Bai Xu
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Chinese media) -- Reported to be China's
longest-surviving AIDS patient, 40-year-old Meng Lin -- who uses apseudonym --
can be seen as an expert on changing public attitude toward the deadly disease.
"The general situation is improving, encouraging more
HIV carriers to step out of the shadows and join the national campaignto curb
the spread of AIDS," said Meng.
President Hu Jintao called on Monday for
spreading AIDS prevention knowledge to the public and helping each AIDS
patient, during his visit to a hospitalin Beijinon World AIDS
Day.(Chinese media Photo)
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He sounded hoarse and tired, a situation that the
founder of the "Ark of Love," an organization for HIV carriers, explained wasdue
to a busy schedule ahead of the annual World AIDS Day.
Meng's tone turned bitter when asked about the stigma
of the disease.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) hugs
three kids, whose parents passed away due to HIV/AIDS, in Fuyang
prefecture, east China's Anhui Province, Nov. 29, 2008. Wen visited people
living with HIV/AIDS and workers dealing with the disease in Fuyang over
the weekend, prior to the World AIDS Day which falls on December 1.
(Chinese media/Rao Aimin)
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Video
One story he told was about a woman who goes by the
pseudonym of Xiao Hong, who went to a renowned hospital in Beijing earlier this
year for a kidney disorder.
The unidentified hospital suggested surgery, but when
it learned that Xiao was an HIV carrier, it turned her down. She tried two other
hospitals, both of which also rejected her.
Her husband, who was also HIV-infected, became so
angry that heeven considered committing suicide in public as a protest. Xiao
said bitterly that she wished the doctors themselves would be infected.
Chinese president visits AIDS patients on World AIDS Day
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Chinese media) -- President Hu Jintao called for spreading AIDS prevention knowledge to the public and helping each AIDS patient, during his visit to a Beijing hospital on Monday, the World AIDS Day.
It was the third time in five years that Hu inspected AIDS prevention work by meeting medical staff, researchers and patients. Full story
Chinese premier visits AIDS patients,
workers
HEFEI, Nov. 30
(Chinese media) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited people living with HIV/AIDS and
thanked workers dealing with the disease in the eastern Anhui Province over the
weekend.
Wen told a special symposium composed of AIDS experts and
grassroots medical workers in Funan County, that government funds for prevention
and control would increase year-by-year.
Other places in China to commemerate World
AIDS Day
Tianjin
Dalian
Beijing
World AIDS Day commemorated
worldwide
Madrid, Spain Lima,Peru Kolkata, India
Spain holds activities for the World AIDS
Day
People take part in AIDS and HIV
prevention campaign inLima
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) talks
with villagers at Dahu village of Funan county, east China's Anhui
Province, Nov. 29, 2008. Wen visited people living with HIV/AIDS and
workers dealing with the disease in Fuyang over the weekend, prior to the
World AIDS Day which falls on December 1.(Chinese media Photo)
Photo Gallery
PERSISTING
STIGMA
In China, the first group of AIDS patients were
mostly poor farmers, who got infected with the HIV virus when they sold blood to
unlicensed operators, dubbed "blood heads," in the early 1990s.
The "blood heads" had a deadly practice: they pooled
all the donated blood, spun it through a centrifuge to separate the plasma,then
pumped the residue back into the donors' bodies in the beliefthat the practice
was safe -- and cheap.
Since it can take a decade for an HIV infection to
cause symptoms, it was years before most of the infected learned of their fate.
They spread the infection to their families, either through sexual contact or by
mother-to-child transmission to unborn children.
People in China didn't and often still don't know
what type of contact does or doesn't spread HIV and so prejudice persists,
eventhough overt discrimination against HIV carriers was outlawed in China 10
years ago.
A report in September by UNAIDS, which polled some
6,000 students, white- and blue-collar workers and migrant workers, found that
more than two-thirds wouldn't live in the same household with an HIV carrier and
nearly half were reluctant to eat with such people.
The study found that 48 percent of the interviewees
still believe that a mosquito bite can transmit HIV, while 18 percent thought
they could contract HIV by having an infected person sneeze or cough on them.
The other cause of stigma is bias. People, and on
many occasions the media, associate HIV primarily with frowned-upon activities
such as intravenous drug use, prostitution or homosexuality.
The UNAIDS report shows that more than 30 percent of the interviewees from six cities in China thought people with HIV/AIDSdeserved the disease because of their sexual or drug-related conduct.
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