HIV Pandemic in China
Some societal factors that have contributed to the pandemic of HIV in China are attitudes towards specific groups, fear, stigma, and shame. This is because the most prominent groups who have HIV in China are gay men and people who inject drugs. Since being gay is not widely accepted in China, men who are gay feel the need to live in secrecy and therefore have minimal understanding regarding the infectious nature of the disease since they cannot openly seek information on it. The risk is so high because these men unfortunately remain ignorant of what is considered risky behavior because everything already seems to be risk behavior for them, having secret relations. About a quarter of HIV cases in China come from homosexual men, with about a 9.9% prevalence rate among these men. As for people who inject drugs, they too hold a negative stigma against them in China. Since drug use is already illegal, just like the homosexual men, these drug users are ignorant to risky behaviors that can transmit HIV. In addition to that, even if they are aware, they are addicts and will use any materials for drug use they can get their hands on regardless of if it were previously used or not. Luckily, China has recognized this and began extensive treatment/prevention programs that include harm reduction interventions, methadone maintenance treatment clinics, and clean needle exchange projects. These programs have shown to be marginally helpful so far reducing the rate of people seeking the methadone treatment from 0.13% to 0.12% over the span of a year.
Some factors that have helped limit the ability of the HIV organism to spread further in China are the previously mentioned prevention programs, medically preventing mother-to-child transmission, and prevention of infected blood donations & transfusions. By preventing the spread of HIV from mother-to-child, a significant amount of cases are prevented since many people who have HIV choose to still have children. In addition to this, there are a number of pregnant women who don’t even realize that antenatal health services are an option and therefore either choose to have the child regardless or avoid pregnancy altogether. As of 2009, there have been no reported cases of children getting HIV even when born to HIV infected mothers. To prevent the transmission of HIV through infected blood transfusions, more funding has gone into screening for HIV for blood donations. Funding has increased all the way to one billion dollars towards blood donations in China.
One overall effect that the HIV pandemic has had on China’s society is infringing upon human rights of Chinese citizens. Since HIV activism is not as widely shown in China as it is in other countries around the world, the government has been accused of harassing, detaining, and censoring activist groups. Also, many federal laws protecting the rights of those with HIV are commonly undermined by lower authorities such as state police. Unfortunately, this further leads to more negative stigmas and discrimination against those with HIV in the Chinese society.
References (Help Received)
https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/asia-pacific/china