Profiles

Couple with HIV lose son, share story

By Kang Yi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-11-29 15:30

An HIV-positive couple who recently lost their infant son to AIDS, sat down at Xiang Ya Hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province with reporters on Nov. 28 to tell their story, wrote the Xiao Xiang Morning News on Wednesday.

Chen Yongjun (alias) and his wife Tian Shuo (alias) were diagnosed HIV positive in May, 2006. [File]

Chen Yongjun and his wife Tian Shuo were both diagnosed as HIV positive in May of this year. According to Chen, his son caught a cold, and after a medical examination the doctor suggested Chen and his wife be tested for HIV.

"Having AIDS myself didn't bother me as much as my son's death," said the boy's mother, Tian. "He was so innocent." The boy passed away six days before his first birthday.

Chen said he has no memory of how he got home when he learned the infection. Chen believes he got the virus from a sex trade while doing migrant work in Gongzhou earlier this year.

Being HIV positive has turned their lives upside down, according to Chen. Neighbors now avoid them, and make detours if they see them coming.

"You can hardly imagine what we have been through," Tian said. "We seem to be invisible in the village and spiritually quarantined by the community."

"Although AIDS is an incurable disease, to my knowledge, we can expect to live longer with the help of current therapy," Chen said.

According to Chen, they still have at least 15 years before developing full-blown AIDS, if the disease was controled properly. Chen said his dream is to have another, healthy, baby with his wife.

Dr. Zheng Yuhuang, director of the AIDS lab at Xiang Ya Hospital told the press that the couple's treatment is going well, and their plans to have a baby are feasible if they successfully continue with the therapy.

"I believe Chinese are born to be tolerant and kind, and a lack of education about the disease is why we are being discriminated against," Chen said.

Xinhua Wednesday news cited a survey by a Beijing-based research group that showed HIV patients in China are still being ostracized from society.

Of the 956 respondents from the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, only 32.8 per cent said they would care for HIV sufferers and only 30 per cent said they would be tolerant of HIV carriers.

According to the report, China issued its first regulations on AIDS in February this year, banning discrimination against sufferers and requiring regional authorities to provide free testing and treatment.

Reported HIV/AIDS cases in China have jumped by nearly 30 per cent this year in comparison to last year, according to figures released on Nov. 21 by the Ministry of Health.

The reported number of cases climbed to 183,733 this year, up from 144,089 at the end of last year, according to statistics announced by the Ministry of Health. Of the reported cases, 40,667 have developed into AIDS.

Health officials warned that the virus is moving from high-risk groups to the general public.