Hospitals deny HIV/AIDS patients access to treatment

By Han Manman

Ignorant doctors are denying treatment to patients with HIV/AIDS and preventing them from getting necessary care at hospitals, a new study released Tuesday by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) found.

Conducted by China’s National Center for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control, the report said that HIV/AIDS patients encountered widespread difficulties in receiving medical services despite national regulations that clearly define their medical rights and forbid discrimination.

HIV/AIDS became a major problem in China in the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of impoverished farmers in rural Henan Province contracted the disease during a botched blood-selling scheme. Today the virus is spread primarily through sexual contact.

A recent report by the Ministry of Health showed the annual death toll from AIDS on the mainland is surging. The disease has topped the list of the mainland’s most dangerous epidemic diseases for the past three years.

Government records show that 7,743 people died from AIDS in 2010, and 15,982 new AIDS patients were reported that year, up by 16.79 percent and 19.73 percent over 2009 respectively.

The ILO report said denial of surgery was one of the most pressing issues facing HIV-infected persons, who were also denied treatment for simpler procedures such as hemorrhoid removal and stitches.

At the news conference to unveil the report Tuesday, an HIV-positive patient who declined to be named said he was repeatedly denied medical care for a back problem at hospitals in both Tianjin and Beijing.

One doctor told him that surgery would be impossible because he would infect others during the procedure, the patient said.

20-year travel ban on HIV/AIDS carriers ends

By Liang Meilan

Just days before the opening of the Shanghai Expo, expected to draw 4 million overseas visitors to the coastal city, the State Council announced an end to its travel ban on foreigners carrying HIV/AIDS.

The lifting of the 20-year ban follows revisions to the Border Quarantine Law and the Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens. Mao Qun’an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, sai the groundwork began years ago.

According to a statement released Tuesday by the State Council, the decision was based on new knowledge about the diseases and evidence that the ban met with very limited success. The ban was a massive inconvenience when hosting international activities such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

It also said previous temporary suspensions of the ban showed that foreigners carrying HIV/AIDS and leprosy did not cause a public health crisis with their presence. The ban was first relaxed for the Asian Games in Beijing in 1990.

The statement said there is no risk of a large-scale outbreak of these diseases based on evidence that daily contact does not cause infection. HIV/AIDS is transmitted by blood or body fluid contact, and leprosy is spread through open wounds.

“The knee-jerk ban began in the 1980s and was based on fear and obsolete information As there are people living with HIV/AIDS in every province in China, a travel ban on foreigners does little to help safeguard  public health,” said He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention an Control.

Zhang Beichuan, a medical professor at Qingdao University and a leading HIV/AIDS rights advocate, hailed the move as a big step.

The government once ignorantly viewed HIV/AIDS as a foreign disease related to “immoral lifestyles,” but now the government views it scientifically as a public health issue, he said.

An online public poll on the ban by China Daily and health.sohu.com last week found that 84 percent of those polled opposed a lifting of the ban. Many said it would bring disaster on the country.

But Jing Jun, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University and senior expert on HIV/AIDS, disagreed. “Public opinion is often wrong. Peope’s misunderstandings come from lack of scientific knowledge and discrimination,” he noted.

Mark Stirling, UNAIDS’ country coordinator, spoke highly of China’s act and said its step makes China a global leader on the HIV/AIDS issue. “[The dissenting voices] show a will to protect the motherland,” he said while noting their fear reflects inadequate AIDS education.

The government also narrowed its entry restrictions on the mentally ill and those carrying tuberculosis to ban only patients who are “severely mentally ill” and whose tuberculosis is infectious.

HIV/AIDS patients are still banned from traveling to 60 countries: 110 allow them entry. The US and Korea lifted their bans in January.

South Africa rolls out biggest national mobilisation since apartheid to fight HIV

South Africa today embarks on the biggest HIV testing programme the world has ever seen, with the ambitious target of persuading 15 million people to find out their status in the next 14 months – a six-fold increase on the 2.5 million tested in 2009. The launch, at Natalspruit hospital in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng province in the presence of president Jacob Zuma, could mark a significant moment in the epidemic.

When I spoke to Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, who has flown out to take part, he called it “the biggest national mobilisation in South Africa around any one cause since apartheid.”

It’s not just about getting people tested and treated, he said, although that in itself will save millions more lives (and not only the lives of those with HIV, because people on antiretroviral drugs are less infectious). It is about openness and a frank national discussion about HIV.

It is a real opportunity for social dialogue,” said Sidibé. “Not only for making people aware of their status.”

He believes the campaign, which will move in the form of a traveling health fair from district to district across the country, will facilitate and encourage talk of dark and deep-rooted social issues, such as sexual violence against women, older men who bribe or force young girls to have sex with them and the inability of women to negotiate safe sex with men.

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Blanket HIV testing ‘could see Aids dying out in 40 years’

People who test HIV-positive could be put on a lifetime course of anti-retroviral drugs under a new strategy being considered by health officials. Photograph: Krista Kennell/ZUMA/Corbis

(Guardian) Health officials are considering a radical shift in the war against HIV and Aids that would see everyone tested for the virus and put on a lifetime course of drugs if they are found to be positive.

The strategy, which would involve testing most of the world’s population for HIV, aims to reduce the transmission of the virus that causes Aids to a level at which it dies out completely over the next 40 years.

Brian Williams, professor of epidemiology at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch, said that transmission of HIV could effectively be halted within five years with the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

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Modern Sky releases charity album featuring Yoko Ono

Queen Sea Big Shark's performed new songs at the album launch last Friday. Photos by Modern Sky

By Wang Yu

Yugongyishan hosted a rock concert last Friday for the launch of Sing for China, a three-CD album to raise funds for orphaned children with HIV.

The record, produced by Modern Sky Records, features dozens of artists from China and seven other countries, including John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono. Proceeds will go to the music label’s partner charity, the US-based China Aidsrphan Fund (CAOF), which works with orphaned children with HIV in central China.

Three of Beijing’s most popular bands – Queen Sea Big Sharks, Casino Demon and B-side Lovers – took the stage during the concert last day. It was the bands’ first show together since their successful joint US tour last September, and they wowed the audience by performing new songs.

“It’s such an honor that our music can help others,” Fu Han, leainger of Queen Sea Big Sharks, said.

Sing for China cover

The album is the brain child of Shen Lihui, Modern Sky Records’ CEO, who conceived of the project in mid 2008 as the Chinese version of US artists’ “We are the Word” campaignthe 1980s. He was inspired by the success of his first charity project, Resonance Fund, which raised funds for deaf children and involved media groups and IT giants such as Sina and Nokia.

“Resonance Fund was the firstcharity event I organized. Such activities were alien to me before I visited the deaf children,” Shen says. “As a musician, I could feel the pain of those kids because they cannot hear music, the most beautiful soundn the world.”

Only later did Shen realize that Sing for China was a tremendous work load for an independent music company. The record contains songs by 44 artists and bands, including Yoko Ono, Xiu Xiu, Phoenix and Great Northern.

“The artists belonged to various labels, which meant we had to negotiate with a huge number of music agents and managers. Then not all the music companies and artists were willing to share album copyright with us, so we had to talk to so many more people than those who appear on the song list just to ensure that the three CDs would happen,” he said.

Partnering with CAOF helped Modern Sky in their overseas negotiations: having a US charity as recipient helped secure a “yes” from foreign artists and helped open doors.

Yoko Ono, the Japanese artist and widow of John Lennon, wrote “We Are Dying” specifically for the project. Ono, whomhen admitted is a big selling point for the record, accepted Modern Sky’s invitation without hesitation. “The last time I was in New York, she was recording the song. Ono was so glad she could help the children. You st know that she’s 77 now. I just don’t know whether I will still have the passion for charity at that age,” he said with admiration.

The first production of Sing for China produced 2,000 copies. At a time when CDs are fast becoming history, Shen said he is not worried selling the album will be a problem. He said he believes that young Chinese music lovers have open hearts and hands for the needy.

“We have so many artists from everwhere in the world in the record. We expect the voice of charity to be heard by more people in the future,” Shen said.