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Media Report 79
Source: | Author:hkb980dd | Published time: 2013-05-30 | 361 Views | Share:
 
Source: People’s Daily
 
GUANGZHOU, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A regulation to abolish HIV tests for teaching candidates in south China's Guangdong Province has stirred debate, especially as it appeared amid a series of sexual abuse scandals in Chinese schools.
 
The revised health standard for teaching applicants, which was publicized by the provincial education department on Monday, no longer contains clauses banning HIV carriers and AIDS patients from holding teaching positions.
 
The regulation will go into effect on Sept. 1, and Guangdong is expected to become the first region on the mainland to stop mandatory HIV and AIDS tests for teaching candidates.
 
The introduction of the new health standards have been hailed by many NGOs as the hard-won achievements of their long-term pursuit of justice for HIV carriers.
 
In January, after the provincial education department consulted the public over the revision, Equity and Justice Initiative (EJI), an NGO based in the coastal city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, proposed abolishing the HIV test in the standard physical examination for teaching applicants.
 
"They are sending a signal to the public that we need to respect and guarantee the basic rights of social minorities," Guo Bin, director of EJI, said of the change to the regulation.
 
Cheng Yuan, director of Nanjing Tianxiagong ("justice for all"), an NGO that has helped HIV carriers file four lawsuits regarding employment discrimination, deemed the regulation a "landmark breakthrough" in China's AIDS prevention and control efforts. More…
 
29/05/2013
 
Source: South China Morning Post
 
Guangzhou education authorities may reverse a policy which bars HIV carriers and people with sexually- transmitted diseases from teaching - a first for a country which has traditionally had a tough approach towards workers sufferering from these diseases.
 
Mandatory HIV tests are to be phased out from the draft list of health qualifications for Guangdong’s teachers by September, state media reported on Tuesday.
 
This comes less than six months after a regulation was proposed, which would have essentially banned people with HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital warts or any of "three other sexually transmitted diseases" from teaching.
 
The January announcement led to a wave of anti-discrimination lawsuits brought by disqualified teachers and widespread condemnation from rights groups.
 
Nanjing-based anti-discrimination NGO Justice for All hailed the new decision as a “landmark breakthrough” and a sign that anti-discrimination campaigns and efforts were beginning to “bear fruit”.
 
“When I first heard the news I almost burst in tears because I was so happy…My hope is to see the same standards applied to the rest of the country,” said Cheng Yuan, the Nanjing-based NGO director, told the Yangcheng Evening News.
 
HIV carriers are often excluded from civil service jobs, including teaching and policing in many provinces of China. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have also recently been banned from working as teachers.
 
“At the moment most of anti-discrimination employment laws are decided at provincial or local level, but ideally, there should be national regulations on this,” said Geoffery Crothall, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based labour rights NGO China Labour Bulletin. More…
 
28/05/2013
 
Source: Herald Sun
 
A CHINESE province is likely to abolish mandatory HIV tests for teachers, the first region on the mainland to do so.
 
HIV carriers are excluded from civil service jobs including teaching and policing in many provinces across China, leading to accusations of discrimination from rights groups.
 
But the state-run China Daily said on Tuesday that HIV tests had been removed from a draft list of health standards for teaching candidates in Guangdong, in the south of the country.
 
It quoted a lawyer as saying that people with HIV have filed an increased number of anti-discrimination lawsuits which have raised awareness of the issue, though most have been unsuccessful.
 
As of the end of 2011 there were an estimated 780,000 people with HIV/AIDS in China, according to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, out of the country's total population of about 1.35 billion.
 
The first 10 months of 2012 saw more than 34,000 new cases of AIDS reported in China, up 12.7 per cent over the same period last year, the state-run Global Times reported, citing a health ministry report. More…
 
28/05/2013
 
Source: China Daily
 
AIDS and HIV tests have been removed from the draft list of health standards for teaching candidates in Guangdong province.
 
"That indicates that AIDS patients and HIV carriers will be able to become teachers when they pass qualification examinations for teachers in Guangdong starting in September, when the new standards come into effect," according to the revised draft of health standards published on Monday.
 
Currently, the province bars HIV carriers and AIDS patients from teaching positions.
 
The health standards have been criticized by many legal experts and residents as discriminating against HIV carriers and AIDS patients.
 
Guangdong is expected to become the first region on the mainland to stop mandatory HIV and AIDS tests for teaching candidates.
 
Xu Xinghua, a lawyer at the Kunming branch of Beijing Forever Law Firm in Yunnan province, said it is good news for the HIV carriers and AIDS patients on the mainland.
 
"Removing the HIV and AIDS checkup for teaching candidates has great significance and demonstrates Guangdong's open mind and high tolerance of HIV carriers and AIDS patients, who are usually discriminated against in employment opportunities," Xu said on Monday.
 
"China has laws and regulations protecting the rights of people with HIV and AIDS, including the right to employment. Denying them the jobs they deserve is depriving them of their right to contribute to society and earn a living," said Xu, who has long been studying and handling employment discrimination cases.
 
"I hope the other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will soon follow Guangdong's practice to remove all the discriminatory clauses against HIV carriers and AIDS patients," he said. More…
 
28/05/2013
 
Source: The Australian
 
A CHINESE province is likely to abolish mandatory HIV tests for teachers, the first region on the mainland to do so.
 
HIV carriers are excluded from civil service jobs including teaching and policing in many provinces across China, leading to accusations of discrimination from rights groups.
 
But the state-run China Daily said on Tuesday that HIV tests had been removed from a draft list of health standards for teaching candidates in Guangdong, in the south of the country.
 
It quoted a lawyer as saying that people with HIV have filed an increased number of anti-discrimination lawsuits which have raised awareness of the issue, though most have been unsuccessful.
 
As of the end of 2011 there were an estimated 780,000 people with HIV/AIDS in China, according to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, out of the country's total population of about 1.35 billion.
 
The first 10 months of 2012 saw more than 34,000 new cases of AIDS reported in China, up 12.7 per cent over the same period last year, the state-run Global Times reported, citing a health ministry report. More…
 
27/05/2013
 
Source: China Daily
 
HIV carriers will be able to take up teaching posts in Guangdong province from September 1, according to a recently revised regulation from the provincial education authority.
 
The Department of Education of Guangdong Province published the regulation on the physical conditions of applicants for teaching posts on April 16. It cut the items of disqualification from 22 to 15, removing the restrictions of being a teacher such as physical disabilities and AIDS.
 
AIDS will not be transmitted through social activities and contacts between family members, said Shao Yiming, an AIDS expert with Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "The new standards are rational," he said. More…
 
23/05/2013
 
Source: Wall Street Journal
 
The Global Fund is a program funded by the wealthy nations that is designed to provide financial assistance to developing countries that lack the resources to fight diseases and build up medical infrastructures.
 
"China currently has over $2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves. It spent over $40 billion to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and over $58 billion to hold the 2010 World Exposition, said Tom Myers, Chief of Public Affairs and General Counsel for AIDS Healthcare Foundation and who is based in Washington. "China is a wealthy country that can pay for its own health care needs and it can certainly step up and contribute more to the Global Fund."
 
"Chinese-owned assets in Africa now amount to over $16 billion," said Dr. Penninah Iutung Amor, Africa Bureau Chief for AHF and who is based in Uganda. "China is Africa's largest trading partner, with a total trade volume of $198 billion. It is quite clear that China derives substantial wealth from the continent hardest hit by AIDS; we believe that China should also share the financial responsibility in helping to stem the epidemic and save millions of lives by contributing more substantially to the Global Fund."
 
"So far China has contributed a total of just $25 million to the Global Fund since its inception, while Germany and Japan, the third and fourth largest economies in the world respectively, have contributed a combined total of $3.5 billion," said Omonigho Ufomata, Director of Global Advocacy & Policy for AHF who is based in Washington and a native of Nigeria. "If it aspires to be recognized as an economic and political leader on the world stage, China should now prioritize humanitarian global health issues and assume the role of a donor. We strongly encourage China to demonstrate its commitment to global health by donating $1 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria."
 
"The Chinese government should be showing more leadership on HIV/AIDS than it has over the past decade and it should be shouldering far greater financial responsibility in helping to combat the global AIDS epidemic," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation in a statement. More…
 
 
23/05/2013
 
Source: Aidsmap
 
Mortality rates fell sharply among people receiving antiretroviral therapy in China between 2003 and 2009, investigators report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Overall, people were about 30% less likely to die in the period 2008-09 compared to 2003-04. However, mortality rates were still well in excess of those seen in the general Chinese population.
 
“The observed mortality rate in this study population (6 deaths/100 person-years) was higher in comparison to results from resource wealthy areas of the world (1 death/100 person-years), but lower than that observed in Sub-Saharan Africa (8 deaths/100 person-years,” comment the authors. “The overall excess mortality we observed was similar to estimates from Sub-Saharan Africa.”
 
With the right treatment and care, the life expectancy of people with HIV can approach or even equal that of HIV-negative individuals.
 
A number of studies have analysed the impact of antiretroviral therapy on the prognosis of people receiving care in rich countries and in southern Africa. However, relatively little is known about mortality among people treated with anti-HIV drugs in China.
 
Since 2002, HIV-positive people in China have had access to HIV treatment through the National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program (NFATP). As of 2009, over 80,000 patients had received therapy via this programme.
 
Investigators compared mortality rates between HIV-positive people receiving treatment through NFATP to those observed in the general Chinese population, as matched for age, sex and area of residence (rural vs urban). They also estimated the excess mortality ratios associated with HIV infection and examined the factors associated with excess mortality. More…
 
20/05/2013
 
Source: Asian Correspondent
 
Prostitution in the People’s Republic of China has been growing since the opening up of the country in the 1980s, when controls were relaxed and society became more affluent. The ‘oldest profession in the world’ is often carried out in shops that advertise themselves as barbers and massage parlors, or in parks and hotels.
 
The government has made heavy-handed efforts to crack down on the phenomenon. According to China’s national news agency Xinhua, in 2010 the Ministry of Public Security sent 27 groups of inspectors to 651 entertainment business venues in four municipalities and 20 provinces, uncovering cases of prostitution in about 381 places. Another campaign took off in 2012 and according to China Daily, 48 entertainment venues in Beijing were shut down. These interventions were not the only ones undertaken by Beijing and surely they are not going to be the last.
 
The government has usually deemed its policies successful, but on May 14 Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Beijing’s policies arguing that they carried out serious abuses on sex workers. The group argued that “sex workers are most at risk of abuses such as police brutality and arbitrary detention during these drives,” and provided a long list of cases.
 
It is also unclear whether these campaigns are any help in dealing with the rise of HIV infection in China. A research about China published by the Oxford Journal’s International Journal of Epidemiology points out that crackdowns in China are “a contentious approach since it focuses on punishment rather than on education.” More…
 
 
20/05/2013
 
Source: South China Morning Post
 
China's laws on prostitution are crystal clear: it is illegal. Yet no country has as many sex workers. Their services are visible and readily available and what has become a thriving industry is a currency of business and symbol of corruption. The result is that an already fragile part of the population is put at greater risk of abuse and vulnerability to sexually-transmitted diseases. It is a situation that will only worsen, with potentially harmful consequences for society, unless authorities take a more enlightened approach.
 
A recent Human Rights Watch report highlighted the difficulties sex workers faced and put the fault squarely at the door of authorities. The US-based group blamed rigid policies, rampant corruption and the Communist Party's discomfort with sex for assault and abuse by customers, police and security officials, detention for up to two years without trial and forced HIV testing. Regular crackdowns are meant to curb the trade, but in a system where prostitution has become interwoven with graft and business dealings, policies are having little, if any, effect. The UN believes that between 4 and 6 million adult women are involved, although some estimates put the figure as high as 10 million.
 
Small changes have been made. Premier Li Keqiang acknowledged last December that the nation faced a serious HIV and Aids challenge and First Lady Peng Liyuan is the World Health Organisation's goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV. The public shaming of prostitutes was abolished three years ago and condoms are now commonplace in hotel guestrooms. Yet abuses have not diminished.
 
Non-governmental groups continue to be discouraged or prevented from helping sex workers. Laws eight years ago that should have eliminated detention without trial for between six months and two years in favour of lesser penalties are still not always being followed. Local authorities are apt to adhere to their own provincial rulings. Accounts of prostitutes being tortured, humiliated and denied lawyers continue unabated.