Women with HIV/AIDS Battle Medical discrimination

Source: Women of China

Chinese women with HIV/AIDS are facing nearly 10 forms of medical discrimination, according to a report released by Beijing-based civil society group the Women's Network against AIDS China (WNAC) on December 21, 2013. 

The report is based on a survey conducted by the network from July to August 2013 in northeast, central, south-central and southwest China. Researchers studied 22 cases of women with HIV/AIDS who experienced discrimination while seeking medical treatment to compile China's first report in the field. 

Author of the report and gender expert Feng Yuan pointed out that as a marginalized and vulnerable group, women with HIV/AIDS face multiple forms of discrimination in employment, marriage, health care and housework that affect their physical and mental health. 

Ten forms of medical discrimination faced by women with HIV/AIDS were listed in the report. The most common forms include being refused or given sub-standard treatment, having patient identity leaked and being given wrong medical advice. 

The report identified the main problem as lying not with patients or doctors, but with ineffective legislation. The government's guide on how hospitals should treat HIV/AIDS patients is not clear enough and has flaws that allow them to shirk their responsibilities to HIV/AIDS patients, the report found. Government regulations allow doctors to redirect HIV/AIDS patients to other hospitals designated to treat those with infectious diseases, which effectively allows them to pass the buck. More…

01/01/2014

College gays new target in China's AIDS fight

Source: Xinhua

GUANGZHOU, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A Xin found out he was infected with HIV during a free HIV test for gay men three years ago, when he was a university postgraduate.

"Many male homosexuals have assumed they are far removed from the disease, knowing nothing at all about their own infections," said A Xin in the south China city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

A Xin's words shed light on the HIV/AIDS situation among young people in colleges and universities in China, where MSMs (men who have sex with men) constitute an increasingly important group in the fight against AIDS.

SEVERE SITUATION

The first student HIV infection in Guangzhou was identified in 2002. To date, the city has reported a total of 117 cases in 48 colleges or universities, according to Xu Huifang, a doctor with the Guangzhou Disease Prevention and Control Center.