Guangzhou may reverse ban on people with sexually-transmitted diseases from teaching

Guangzhou education authorities may reverse a policy which bars HIV carriers and people with sexually- transmitted diseases from teaching - a first for a country which has traditionally had a tough approach towards workers sufferering from these diseases.

Mandatory HIV tests are to be phased out from the draft list of health qualifications for Guangdong’s teachers by September, state media reported on Tuesday.

This comes less than six months after a regulation was proposed, which would have essentially banned people with HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital warts or any of "three other sexually transmitted diseases" from teaching.

The January announcement  led to a wave of anti-discrimination lawsuits brought by disqualified teachers and widespread condemnation from rights groups. 

Nanjing-based anti-discrimination NGO Justice for All hailed the new decision as a “landmark breakthrough” and a sign that anti-discrimination campaigns and efforts were beginning to “bear fruit”.

“When I first heard the news I almost burst in tears because I was so happy…My hope is to see the same standards applied to the rest of the country,” said Cheng Yuan, the Nanjing-based NGO director, told the Yangcheng Evening News.

HIV carriers are often excluded from civil service jobs, including teaching and policing in many provinces of China. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have also recently been banned from working as teachers.