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Vivian Lin

A farmer in central China lived as an Aids patient for almost 10 years, was dumped by his family and outcast from society, before he found out that the diagnosis was wrong.
Yang Shoufa, 53, told ThePaper.cnthat his life was “flipped upside down” when the Zhenping county disease control centre told him he had Aids in mid-2004.
He felt like he “might as well just die”, said the farmer from Hunan province.
Aids and HIV-positive patients face serious stigma in China.

As a result of the diagnosis, Yang’s wife filed for divorce and left him, taking their three children with her. He was also ostracised by his fellow villagers.
Yang said he felt “like a prisoner on death row”.
Never second-guessing the diagnosis, he started taking medication to keep his condition under control.
The time of infection was believed to have been in 1992, when he sold blood once on the black market.
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But despite taking the medication, Yang’s condition deteriorated. He suffered from extreme intolerance of cold, trembling, migraines, ringing in his ears, fuzzy vision and memory loss.
In 2012, he was admitted into hospital for treatment.
There, doctors discovered to their surprise that he showed no signs of HIV infection and did not have Aids.
Instead, they diagnosed him with other illnesses, including esophagal and gallbladder inflammation, excessive bleeding from stomach ulcers and an enlarged prostate, among other afflictions.

After learning about it, an infuriated Yang demanded compensation from the county disease control centre for the damage their wrongful diagnosis had done to him.
In March, he was offered 100,000 yuan (HK$119,000), which was raised to 250,000 yuan two months later, according to ThePaper.cn.
A long battle to recognise the plight of Chinese HIV and Aids sufferers
But Yang said the amount offered did not even come close to compensating for his losses.
He now drinks excessively, disregarding his doctors’ warnings, lamenting his “wasted life” and hopelessness for the future.
In the past, Yang said, he felt like he was waiting to die. Now, though released from his “sentence”, he remained stuck in limbo between life and death, he said.


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‘I felt like a prisoner on death row’: Chinese farmer who lived with wrong diagnosis of Aids for almost a decade

Hunan farmer Yang Shoufa was abandoned by his family and ostracised by society after the Aids diagnosis. Photo: SCMP Pictures

=== NO ARCHIVE IMAGE === ATN. AIDS19. SCMP Pictures (UNDATED HANDOUT)

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