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China Exclusive: Jailed with HIV -- a struggle against despair (5) |
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20:32, July 09, 2007 |
An inmate surnamed Huang was only 19 years old when he was sent to Qingliu, with a sentence of more than 19 years for robbery and theft. He had contracted HIV through unprotected sex.
On receiving his HIV test results, Huang was "thunderstruck and felt his fate was sealed", Wu says, adding that the young man often lamented "my life won''t last as long as the prison term."
"As guards, we believe that the day is not far off when there will finally be a cure for AIDS, and most of the HIV-affected inmates will be able to walk out of the prison," Fan says. "We try our best to convince the inmates to believe what we believe."
Harsh Conditions Outside
It is the hope of re-entering society that boosts the spirits of guards and inmates alike but none of them know whether the outside world is ready to accept them.
China''s first AIDS case was identified in a dying foreign tourist in 1985, but the number has ballooned over the past two decades. The Health Ministry estimates that today there are 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS across China, including 75,000 with full blown AIDS.
Despite repeated campaigns by the government and NGOs, prejudice and discrimination are still rife among the general population.
A recent survey conducted in 12 universities in Beijing, considered to be some of the most enlightened in the country, showed that nearly a quarter of students object to having HIV positive classmates, and 4 percent say that HIV carriers should not even be allowed to have a job.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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