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Reason replacing fear in AIDS fight
By Ma Guihua (China Features)
Updated: 2004-07-13 01:49
In late 2003, a female HIV carrier in Guiyang married her healthy
partner causing a great uproar in the nation's media, provoking heated
discussion as to whether HIV carriers had the right to marry. But the recent
wedding of Chen Yan and Ding Guifang, both HIV positive, in Northeast China's
Jilin Province last April went off without any fuss at all.
"People were nice to us," says the 36-year-old bridegroom Chen,
appreciatively. Both he and his bride's former partners died of AIDS as a
consequence of donating blood in 1995.
New bridegroom Chen says nobody challenged them with such questions at their
wedding. The 200 or so guests at the wedding were all very positive about it.
Even his parents, who had broken off relations with their son when his marriage
plans became known in their village, appeared at the ceremony. A local company
offered to take their wedding photos for free. Another paid for their banquet.
One person sent them a gold necklace and pair of earrings as a gift, while a
flower vendor provided them with flowers free of charge.
Liu Baogui, an official with the Jilin Provincial Centre for Disease Control,
who had been helpful in arranging the couple's marriage, was very happy to see
this positive change in attitude of the general public towards people with
HIV/AIDS.
"Such respect is vital in our battle with HIV/AIDS," says Liu, adding that
"many people with HIV/AIDS lead hard lives and need help."
The world is gathering for the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok,
Thailand, this Sunday; and China -- where most people first dismissed the
epidemic as something alien and remote from their country, then stigmatized it
as "disgraceful" -- is now more open and understanding with regard to the
disease and its victims.
In the two decades since the first AIDS case was detected in China in 1985,
the country, with a population of 1.3 billion, has witnessed a rapid spread of
AIDS, with over 840,000 people infected with the fatal virus. By September 2001,
all the country's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had
reported AIDS cases.
Many experts agree that the significant change in attitude in the government
came in the late 1990s, when it was disclosed that thousands of farmers had been
infected with HIV/AIDS while selling their blood. Up to that time, HIV/AIDS in
China had been largely confined to drug addicts and people engaging in
"indiscreet sex."
But statistics show that 11 per cent of the HIV carriers in China were
infected while selling their blood plasma. Many of them were farmers desperate
to augment their incomes by selling their blood, but were infected with the AIDS
virus at blood centres where their blood was processed to remove the plasma then
reinfused in the donors, sometimes carrying red blood cells from the
contaminated pool.
The State Council set up a long-term programme in 1998 for HIV/AIDS control
with 2010 as its target year, which calls for ensuring the safety of medical
blood supplies and clamping down on drug abuse and prostitution.
In 2001, the central government increased its budget for HIV/AIDS prevention
and control from 15 million yuan (US$1.8 million) to 100 million yuan (US$12
million) annually, and the figure reached 390 million yuan (US$47 million) last
year. Another 2.5 billion yuan (US$300 million) has been earmarked to improve
the construction of public blood banks in central and western China to prevent
transmission through sub-standard blood collection and transfusion procedures.
Heading the government's endeavour to improve the social environment for
people living with HIV/AIDS, Premier Wen Jiabao, in an unprecedented move,
reached out to shake hands and talk face-to-face with three AIDS patients in a
Beijing hospital on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2003.
"It was the first time for a Chinese premier to meet with AIDS patients. The
message was clear. Wen was telling the whole nation 'I'm willing to help them,'"
observes Ray Yip, country director for the Global AIDS Programme under the US
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Commending the gesture as a "milestone" in China's HIV/AIDS prevention and
treatment efforts, Yip added that it showed the commitment of the new generation
of Chinese leaders to tackling the issue head-on.
Real action followed, and the government moved beyond education campaigns
informing people of the transmission channels of the virus and warning them to
avoid high-risk behaviour to initiating a series of pragmatic measures.
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