China Focus: Changes in social discrimination in eyes of 2 Chinese HIV carriers

In the middle of our interview, Li Hu gets a phone call from a furniture promoter. "I don't need that," he says. "I have AIDS," and hangs up the phone. Li knows that AIDS scares people away, including nuisance phone callers.Such fear, though manipulated to his advantage in this case, is more often painfully felt by him as discrimination. Speaking of social discrimination against people living with HIV (PLWHIV), Li says, "There have been some progresses over recent years, but not enough." At the end of a week that held World AIDS Day and the revelation that there are a predicted 780,000 PLWHIV in China, his comments come as a frank assessment of the country's achievements so far in combating AIDS issues -- and how much it still has to do. Li, a strong and robust man in his 30s, has been living with HIV since 2006. From then on, the one-time businessman started a peer support group, "Haihe Star," in Tianjin municipality for PLWHIV. The good-humored man says, "I thought my days were numbered after I was tested HIV positive, so I sent my sister to take over my business. "But later on I began to realize it's not the end of the world," adding that with proper treatment and a positive outlook, a carrier can live a normal life. His organization now mainly focuses on disseminating HIV/AIDS information to increase public understanding and offer psychological support to the infected. Li is an advocator for eliminating discrimination against PLWHIV in the job market, among health personnel and among the public in general. One of Li's friends, suffering retinal detachment, was denied surgery by every hospital he visited due to HIV-positive status in 2008. "When I met him at the end of 2009, he could just tell the light was on but not see where the light was in a room," Li says. Haihe Star has two paid workers and two volunteers. One of Li's colleagues used to work for a state-owned enterprise, but was sent home after his HIV-positive status was revealed to his employer. Li says these forms of discrimination not only affect PLWHIV in a practical sense but have a terrible impact on them psychologically. Another person all too aware of these issues is Da Wei, whose life has been "unstable" since he voluntarily revealed his gay and HIV-positive status to the public via China Central Television in 2005. The images of him were not blurred to protect his identity, as is common in such cases. The 28-year-old has been constantly moving and shifting between part-time jobs in the past six years, afraid of being recognized. "If I had my time again, I would prefer to have had my pictures blurred, because I have been under grave pressures since then," says the young man. One of his landlords, after recognizing him from an online report, gave him 500 yuan in compensation and asked him to move out. Da Wei also lost contact with a few of his friends. He remembers the end of one particular 10-year-long friendship: "One day, we met on an online instant message network, and he told me we could meet in person after I get cured someday. "Putting myself in their shoes, I quite understand their worries, and I just hope I will not bring troubles to anyone around me." Nevertheless, both Li Hu and Da Wei have found chinks of light. "The situation is getting better," says Li. "We HIV carriers dare to speak out and our voices weigh more in policy-making than before." An example of this increasing influence comes from the time an expert at a symposium proposed that people diagnosed as HIV positive must reveal their status to their spouse in 30 days after their test or face the local CDC center doing it for them. Li and another two carriers attending the symposium refuted the proposal immediately and it has been in suspension ever since. "The entrenched social discrimination against PLWHIV will not be eradicated overnight, but I can still feel some progress," Da Wei says. He says that in recent years, even in his hometown in land-locked Gansu province, HIV carriers have increasingly been able to enjoy medical services in specially designated hospitals. "Some doctors and nurses become friends with us and they seldom wear gloves when they are with us except when necessary," he explains. "We are gradually stepping out of the grey zone to the sunshine and everything is just getting better and better." China currently has 346,000 registered HIV carriers and AIDS patients, and the number including those who are not registered is predicted to hit 780,000 by the end of 2011, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Ministry of Health. In recent years, a lot of high-profile advocacy campaigns have been organized, with senior leaders visiting PLWHIV and calling for an end to discrimination. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) this year pledged new measures to help people living with HIV/AIDS obtain affordable drug treatment, enjoy fair job opportunities and education chances and avoid being discriminated against.