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China AIDS Sufferers Being Denied Medical Care
By Reuters
May 17, 2011
China
People in China
living with HIV and AIDS are routinely being denied medical treatment
in mainstream hospitals due to fear and ignorance about the disease,
according to a study released by the United Nations' International
Labor Organization (ILO).
The world's most populous nation -- with 1.34 billion people -- had
740,000 people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with
105,000 AIDS patients, in 2009, according to state news agency Xinhua,
citing United Nations estimates.
HIV/AIDS became a major problem for China in the 1990s when hundreds of
thousands of impoverished farmers in rural Henan province became
infected through botched blood-selling schemes, but the virus is now
primarily spread in the country via sexual contact.
Based on
interviews with 103 people living with HIV and 23 healthcare workers,
the ILO and China's National Center for STD and AIDS Prevention and
Control found that people have been refused medical care and have been
discriminated against by healthcare workers.
One HIV-positive man, talking at a news conference to unveil the
report, recounted how he was denied medical treatment for his back
problem because of his HIV status in hospitals in Tianjin and Beijing.
"The doctor said at our hospital, many patients need surgery, and if
other patients get infected, it will be a very bad thing," said the
man, who declined to be identified.
"At the second hospital ... the doctor told me: 'I sympathize with your
suffering but because of your status, I dare not operate on you'," said
the man, who is a farmer from Tianjin and added he was forced to leave
his job in a steel firm after his boss discovered he had HIV.
"I've visited many other hospitals and encountered similar denials and
excuses such as a lack of equipment."
Beijing was initially slow to acknowledge the threat of the disease but
has since stepped up the fight against it, spending more on prevention
programs, launching schemes to give universal access to anti-retroviral
drugs to contain the disease, and introducing policies to curb
discrimination.
But in a
country where taboos surrounding sex remain strong and discussion of
the topic is largely limited, persistent discrimination by healthcare
workers could mean that many sufferers are likely to avoid medical
treatment.
Zhang Ke, deputy director of the infectious disease department of the
Beijing You An Hospital, said China's policy that people with HIV and
AIDS should only be treated in designated hospitals for treating
infectious diseases was one of the root causes for the discrimination.
"We should eliminate these designated hospitals," said the doctor, who
treats HIV-infected patients.
Another HIV-positive man from Hebei province, who contracted the virus
through a blood transfusion, recalled how hospital workers insisted on
discharging him quickly after they found out he had HIV.
"I talked to them later ... and their worry is that in rural hospitals,
when a HIV positive person receives procedures, very few people would
visit the hospital. They are worried about the impact on economic
gains," he said.
While it has stepped up the fight against AIDS, China has been wary of
AIDS activists who have agitated for the rights of AIDS sufferers. Hu
Jia, an advocate of rural AIDS sufferers, was sentenced to
three-and-a-half years in prison by a Chinese court in April 2008, for
"inciting subversion of state power."
Another AIDS activist, former health ministry official Wan Yanhai, has
fled to the United States with his family, citing pressure from
authorities, according to rights group Human Rights Watch.
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