People with HIV in Asia thrown out of hospitals, women sterilised, according to study

Some health workers in Asia are refusing to perform surgery and provide services for people living with HIV, and are even expelling patients from hospitals and forcing women to undergo sterilisation, according to grassroots organisations.

In China and Vietnam, discrimination took the form of changing the recommended option for treatment from surgery to topical or oral medication, said the four-country study supported by Asia Catalyst, which provides management training for community-based health organisations.

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In Myanmar and Cambodia, patients with HIV were relegated to segregated waiting areas and bed spaces. One HIV-positive woman in Myanmar said doctors told staff not to give her a hospital bed, so she slept for two nights in the barracks for security guards.

“You see the fear and misinformation that’s in the medical setting,” said Gareth Durrant, Asia Catalyst’s Bangkok-based director of capacity building and community initiatives.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to 4.8 million people living with HIV, the majority of them living in 12 countries: China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Asia Catalyst trained and supported staff from eight community-based organisations – two each in