Villagers want 8-year-old HIV positive boy banished

Two hundred villagers in south-west China have signed a letter calling for an eight-year-old child to be sent away because he is HIV positive, state media has reported, in a case highlighting the stigma attached to the condition and widespread ignorance about it.

Even the boy’s grandfather, his guardian, has added his name to the request by residents in Nanchong, Sichuan province, according to a report by the People’s Daily newspaper. It added that the child – given the pseudonym of Kunkun in the report – sat through the meeting that voted unanimously for his removal.

“We are all very sympathetic and he is innocent – he is only a kid. But he has Aids. This is too scary for us. We don’t know what to do. We hope some organisation can take him,” said the village party secretary.

The villagers’ letter to the authorities asks that Kunkun be taken away from the village and given medical treatment in isolation. The report said no school had dared accept the boy because other families would refuse to let their children study with him and that no one was allowed to play with him. One father described him as a “timebomb”.

Almost half a million people in China are living with HIV or Aids, according to state news agency Xinhua. Others believe the total is significantly higher. Many are turned away by schools and hospitals as well as employers.

The report said Kunkun’s grandfather was looking after him on behalf of his adopted son, a migrant worker who met the child’s mother when she was already three months pregnant.

The boy’s father stopped sending money home or contacting his family after he learned the child had been diagnosed with HIV while being treated for an eye injury three years ago. The father’s younger brother has also stopped returning home for visits because he is afraid of contracting the virus.

The boy and his grandparents are reliant solely on meagre government benefits and their farm.

China’s leaders have sought to tackle the stigma of the virus by meeting, shaking hands with and sitting down to eat meals with HIV-positive people. China’s president, Xi Jinping, said in 2012: “HIV/Aids is not terrible in itself, but what is really dreadful is the ignorance on HIV/Aids and the prejudice against Aids patients.”

Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan has been the World Health Organisation’s goodwill ambassador for HIV/Aids and tuberculosis and was recently shown holding hands with affected children.

But while authorities have launched public information campaigns on the dangers of sharing needles and unprotected sex, they have suppressed discussion of the significant number of cases – estimated at a 10th of the total – that resulted from an officially backed blood-selling scheme.

In 2013, an aspiring teacher in south-east China became the first person in the country to win compensation for HIV-related employment discrimination. [Theguardian]