Meng Lin, an HIV carrier, made a difficult decision recently, for which he was overwhelmingly criticised online by medical professionals: he advised an HIV-positive friend who checked into hospital with an appendicitis not to reveal his status, for fear he would be turned away.
Meng, a co-ordinator of the secretariat of the Chinese Alliance of People Living with HIV/Aids, said he felt bad that deception was necessary, but he had to make a choice between telling his friend to inform the doctors and watching the friend being denied an operation that need not expose medical staff to the virus.
His friend successfully underwent the operation, but Meng was criticised after saying on his microblog afterwards what he had advised. 'I have seen too many Aids/HIV patients who had to leave hospital because doctors refused to treat them, even in the top hospitals in Beijing,' he said. 'It is a problem that should be taken seriously by the Ministry of Health and dealt with by law.'
A 2006 law on the prevention and control of HIV/Aids stipulates that those infected have the right to marriage, employment, medical care and education, and that medical institutions should not make excuses or deny treatment. But despite years of awareness campaigns, HIV/Aids patients say they still face unfair discrimination from society, including where some least expect it: hospitals. They say they are frequently denied medical care once their HIV status is revealed, and some have had to hide the condition from doctors or choose not to go to hospital.
Some doctors turn down HIV/Aids patients by saying they should seek treatment in a specialised infectious-diseases hospital, but these hospitals generally lack the medical capabilities of general hospitals.
Meng recalled two cases of people denied treatment at Beijing's top hospitals. One patient was suffering from pancreatitis and the other from hydronephrosis, a kidney disorder.
An increasing number of people are infected with the virus and suffering from the disease.