Banish AIDS myths from journalism
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Early in November, Xiao Wu, a 22-year-old college graduate, was barred from teaching at school by a local education administration in Anhui Province after a mandatory blood test revealed that he was HIV positive.
Xiao Wu filed a lawsuit against the local Anqing Education Bureau. According to Chinese law, no institution or individual should discriminate against people living with HIV/ AIDS.
"I like teaching. But I felt totally hopeless after the court rejected my job-discrimination lawsuit," Xiao Wu said, "I need a job to make a living and to support my aging parents."
Although the HIV rate in China is a mere 0.05 percent, AIDS is a particularly deadly disease here because most sufferers are not aware that they are HIV positive until they become severely ill, when it's too late to receive effective antiretroviral drugs treatment.
Since most of the estimated 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS are sex workers, MSM (men who have sex with men) and intravenous drug users, the coverage of HIV/AIDS in China has been characterized by stigmatization, which has further isolated HIV positive people.
Very few people, even those most at risk, are willing to take HIV tests.
The court decision in Anhui was a reflection of the fear, ignorance and prejudice against HIV positive people by the Chinese public, who have been given little accurate and scientific health education by the increasingly sensationalized Chinese media.
In November 2003, my colleagues and I at Tsinghua University invited former US President Bill Clinton to launch a national campaign for health education and media campaign against stigmatization of HIV/AIDS.
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