The plight of a Chinese boy with the HIV
virus, reportedly pushed to leave his home
by 200 villagers who signed a petition,
sparked intense online soul-searching in
the country on Thursday.
The case has highlighted the stigma
attached to HIV in China, where many
sufferers face widespread discrimination.
The boy’s guardian, his grandfather, was
among those in the southwestern Sichuan
province who signed an agreement to
expel the eight-year-old to “protect
villagers’ health”, the Global Times
reported.
The newspaper, with close ties to the
ruling Communist Party, said the boy
contracted the virus from his mother, and
was diagnosed when he received injuries
for minor treatment in 2011.
Previous reports said the boy — who was
given the pseudonym Kunkun by Chinese
media — was refused admission to local
schools and villagers would avoid contact
with him.
“Nobody plays (with me), I play alone,”
Kunkun said, according to a report
Wednesday on the website of the People’s
Daily newspaper, the official mouthpiece of
Communist Party.
The website also said Kunkun was referred
to as a “time bomb” in the petition.
“The villagers sympathise with him, he is
innocent, and only a small child,” Wang
Yishu, party chief of Shufangya village,
told the website.
“But his HIV and AIDS is too scary for us.”
The Global Times said the boy’s mother left
the family in 2006, while his father “lost
contact” after Kunkun’s condition was
diagnosed.
The case sparked much debate on China’s
Twitter-like Sina Weibo, where it was the
most widely-discussed topic on Thursday
morning, with many asking how people
could be so cold-hearted towards the boy.
“Why was he ruthlessly neglected, it is so
unfair to him,” one poster said.
“This is because the Chinese population
cannot get enough education, causing
ignorance and panic,” said another.
China’s National Health and Family
Planning Commission said earlier this
month that by the end of October, a total
of 497,000 people in China had been
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the
country’s first case in 1985. China has a
population of 1.36 billion.
Discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS
remains an issue at schools, hospitals,
workplaces and other establishments
across the country, a factor that experts
say hampers efforts to diagnose and treat
the virus.
Source: www.punchng.com/news/china-village-votes-to-expel-hiv-positive-boy/

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