Society

HIV patients face medical discrimination

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-17 21:22

BEIJING - After saying that he will kill himself by consuming an excessive amount of sleeping bills when the anxiety from discrimination becomes unbearable, a man with HIV sobbed while speaking at a conference highlighting equal medical rights for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in China.

The 42-year-old farmer, who declined to be identified, tested HIV-positive in 2008. Frequent hospital visits cost him his job. Later, he was repeatedly refused orthopedic surgery because of his HIV-positive status.

Without the basic surgery that could easily cure his injured lower back, the man is now partially paralyzed and can only walk with the help of crutches.

He is not alone in this situation. A report issued Tuesday found that PLHIV in China encounter widespread difficulties in receiving medical services, despite government regulations that clearly define their medical rights and forbid discrimination against PLHIV.

There are currently an estimated 700,000 PLHIV in China, including about 75,000 AIDS patients. The country's guiding regulation on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS states that medical institutions should not turn away patients with HIV or refuse treatment on the grounds that a patient is infected with HIV.

Despite these regulations, the report states that PLHIV in China frequently face problems when attempting to access medical services, including being denied surgery by medical institutions or receiving nondeferential treatment by healthcare workers.

The 42-year-old farmer visited several doctors. They all told him that a simple surgery could fix his aching back. But when the farmer revealed his HIV status, these doctors would either recommend non-surgical treatment or bluntly turn him away.

The report, "Discrimination against People Living with HIV within Healthcare Settings in China," was jointly carried out by the International Labor Office (ILO) and China's National Center for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control.

The report's findings are based on interviews with 103 PLHIV, and 23 hospital managers, healthcare workers and health administrators.

The report attributes the difficulties PLHIV face in accessing medical services to a variety of factors, including perceived responsibility among medical institutions to other patients, a sense that PLHIV should be transferred to designated hospitals to better protect other patients, and the idea among hospital managements that prospective patients will go elsewhere if they know that the hospital provides services for PLHIV.

The report also states that many of the healthcare workers who were interviewed have concerns about occupational exposure to HIV and are not well aware of HIV and occupational protection measures.

Doctor Zhang Ke agrees. He has treated HIV/AIDS patients for over ten years at Beijing's YouAn Hospital, home to a nationally-known center for HIV/AIDS treatment.

At the conference, Zhang said that today's doctors are so specialized in their own fields that they may not know the basics of other diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

He acknowledged that doctors performing operations on PLHIV are under extreme pressure and fear exposure to HIV during the course of treatment.

But he dismissed the idea that doctors in general are too scared to treat PLHIV.

"There are many good doctors who are willing to provide medical services to people living with HIV, but they are not well-informed and do not know how to help these patients," Dr. Zhang said.

The report recommended improving relevant policies, promoting awareness of the medical rights of PLHIV, and strengthening the implementation of universal precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent contraction of the disease.

The Chinese government has already identified access to healthcare by PLHIV as an area requiring stronger policy implementation.

In December 2010, it issued a notice ordering actions to eliminate discrimination and protect the legitimate rights and interests of PLHIV in accessing health services.

Action is exactly what another HIV-affected patient speaking on condition of anonymity at the conference wants.

"We need actual help, not hand-shaking with government officials during festivals or extensive media coverage around World AIDS Day," the patient said.