Beijing ponders a better system to treat foreigners with HIV

China is exploring a better way to treat foreign nationals living with HIV as the country reported increasing cases of HIV-infected residents. Yunnan Province which reported many HIV cases in families of cross-border marriage has already provided free testing and antiretroviral services to the immigrants. In addition, specialists voiced concerns over the Chinese purchase of brides from Myanmar and Vietnam as the high infection rate was detected in the group of people.

According to statistics the Global Times obtained from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 12,764 foreign nationals living with HIV were residing in the Chinese mainland at the end of November, 1,638 of which were first reported this year, a growth of 14.7 percent over last year.

The number was mainly obtained from mandatory health tests on applicants for transnational marriage certificates or working visas, and the actual number could be larger, said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS and STD Control and Prevention at the CDC.

The number of foreign nationals tested with HIV has grown quickly since the ban on HIV-positive persons entering the country was lifted in 2010.

But the question of how to manage the medical treatment and follow-up monitoring of this group of people has become a concern for health officials and experts from both China and international organizations.

The UNAIDS China office is considering cooperating with Beijing Ditan Hospital, an affiliate of Capital Medical University designated for the treatment of AIDS, to create easy access to treatment for foreign AIDS patients.

Workers from the UNAIDS China office said the project hasn't yet been launched. Lun Wenhui, director of the Dermatology and STD Department at Beijing Ditan Hospital, said the collaboration is still in its initial stage.

"We are still negotiating. The hospital itself already has a mature system for treating foreign patients with HIV," Lun told the Global Times.

He noted that they have the green light to receive foreign patients who have medical insurance from their employers or from their own countries and to provide them with the certificates necessary to help them return to their country of origin.

But for those foreign patients who have no legal identity or who have financial difficulties, the problems are complex. "We can provide a certain amount of humanitarian aid to some individual patients, but we can't afford to do that for more people unless international organizations and embassies offer a hand."

Brides from Myanmar and Vietnam

Nearly half of the foreigners with HIV were diagnosed in the past five years. One in eight of them are AIDS patients, according to the report provided by the Center for AIDS and STDs. "It doesn't rule out that some of them might have died or left China," the center's director Wu Zunyou said.

Southwest China's Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, all of which have a high HIV prevalence, accounts for more than 70 percent of HIV cases in China.

In the border areas of Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, there has long been a tradition of marrying women from neighboring countries.

In Yunnan, there are thousands of transnational families in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. "Many couples and their children there were found to have HIV," Wu said.

According to statistics provided by the Yunnan CDC, more than 90 percent of HIV-infected foreigners in the province are Myanmar nationals. Of the 745 cases reported in the first 10 months of this year, 75.4 percent were transmitted through sex and 22.7 percent were transmitted through drug use.

"Because Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, has become the permanent host of the annual China-ASEAN Expo, the communication and population flow between Southwest China and Southeast Asian countries have increased greatly," Wu explained.

The stream of people has boosted the entertainment sector on which the sex trade and drug use depend, increasing the risks of cross-border AIDS transmission, according the Guangxi CDC.

Another concern for Chinese AIDS control specialists is the booming business of "buying brides" from Myanmar and Vietnam fueled by demand for wives from rural Chinese men.

Last year, the Xiamen Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine Bureau reported seven foreigners with HIV, six of whom were Vietnamese brides, Xiamen Daily reported. Fujian's Zhangzhou reported that among the more than 900 brides who arrived there from Vietnam last year, four were found to have STDs and four others were found to have HIV.

Many of the brides are smuggled in, and the transmission risks are high if they have no idea about their condition or take no preventative measures. Some tragedies have resulted.

In May, the mother of a 3-year-old son set fire to her home in Wu'an township, Gaoyou in East China's Jiangsu Province. Luckily, the fire was discovered in time, and no one was injured. Weeks earlier, the woman's husband, Zhang, found that he was HIV positive when he went to donate blood. Zhang later took his wife and son to get tested and found that they were also infected with HIV, Nanjing-based Modern Express reported.

The woman, who is Vietnamese, was accused of infecting Zhang and their son. Zhang's family wanted her to leave, and her possible mental breakdown led to the arson, the Global Times learned from the Modern Express reporter.

Local health authorities provided free antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to the father and son, but the mother, who is an illegal immigrant, faced deportation by police.