Unloved HIV/AIDS tests halted in China

Source: Global Times

• [00:28 April 21 2011]     By Zheng Yi

China has abolished three controversial regulations that required overseas Chinese citizens not only take an HIV test but also that its results be broadcast to all relevant health authorities.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China on Tuesday published new regulations without either of the offensive HIV/AIDS clauses, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The move follows a regulation permitting foreigners infected with HIV to visit China that was approved in last April, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The regulations had been lambasted online for intervening in the basic civil rights of Chinese citizens, said a consultant to government policymakers on issues including HIV/AIDS prevention since 1990.

"AIDS is a disease with low infection rates," said Li Dun on Wednesday.

"And the proportion of people infected with HIV from abroad is negligible compared with AIDS patients living in China," Li said.

The amended regulations deleted a regulation that required information from HIV/AIDS sufferers be reported within six hours through the health and quarantine information management system.

A third deleted regulation  had stated that entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus should verify the validity of patients' information after AIDS patients voluntarily reported their information when entering the country.

"The reason for establishing the check on whether Chinese citizens were infected with HIV when returning home was to prevent the spread of the disease from overseas countries," said general administration staff member Xu Jian on Wednesday, "but we then found this method was not really so necessary as there were rarely any AIDS patients infected by people from abroad."