Stigma and discrimination form the main barrier to China's
HIV/AIDS prevention, said a UNICEF health official in
Beijing Saturday.
Overcoming stigma and discrimination is crucial to China winning
the war against AIDS, said Koen Vanormelingen, chief of the Health
and Nutrition Section of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) Office for China.
In China and in the rest of Asia, social and cultural
discrimination prevents people from wanting to know more about
AIDS, and makes it especially hard to stop the spread of the
disease.
A recent investigation by Horizon Market Research, a leading
survey company in China, shows that nearly 19 percent of Chinese
people have never heard of AIDS, almost the highest percentage in
the world. In some regions of central China's Henan
Province, where unsanitary blood sales have caused a serious
increase in HIV infection, the local people do not even know the
term AIDS, and just call it a "mysterious disease."
In addition, for many people, HIV/AIDS is considered a
disgraceful condition. Those infected with HIV are usually
considered morally bad, and are therefore despised by others.
Stigma and discrimination are also very dangerous in that they
may push the HIV-affected group to criminality and other behavior
which destabilizes society, said Vanormelingen.
A local HIV worker in Henan was shocked by the hatred of one boy
she met. " I will kill that blood trader when I grow up!" he had
said. The boy's father had been infected with HIV years ago when he
sold blood.
HIV/AIDS is not only a health issue, but a social one. The
removal of the stigma attached to it needs the efforts of the whole
of society, especially the government and senior leaders, said
Vanormelingen.
Though the Chinese central government is making good progress
towards HIV/AIDS prevention and care, some local officials and the
public still need to pay more attention to the issue, said
Vanormelingen.
In his trips around China, Vanormelingen has met many local
officials who still feel the problem is some distance away, when it
is actually on their doorsteps.
China reportedly now has 840,000 HIV carriers, including 80,000
AIDS patients.
"We still need more attention to be paid to this issue, as well
as more commitment from the government in order to win the fight
against HIV/AIDS," said Vanormelingen.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2003)