Activist groups oppose real name AIDS test

Nanning (CNS) – Some HIV-ridden provinces and autonomous regions are promoting a real-name registration policy for HIV tests. However, many activist groups have expressed disagreement with the policy.

At present, Hunan and Guangxi both plan to write the policy into local regulations, while Yunnan has already instituted non-compulsory real-name HIV tests at local hospitals.

If the real-name registration becomes law, it will shut down the possibility to exercise control of the spread of AIDS at the very beginning of the information process, warned Yu Fangqiang, executive director of the non-government organization (NGO) Tianxia Gong in Nanjing on Monday.

People who intended to take the test will stop in their tracks, argued Yu, due to panic about violations of their privacy.

Men who have sex with men are responsible for the majority of AIDS transmittance cases in China, said Wang Long, chairman of National Association of Civil Anti-AIDS Groups. If it was compulsory to register in your real name and to inform your partner of the result, he estimated the number of gays willing to take an HIV test would decrease by a huge margin.

According to sources from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) in China, 7,728 valid questionnaires were collected as of Monday regarding the real-name test issue.

Over the five day polling period, 89.7 percent of interviewees said they would refuse to take the test if giving their real name was required. In the case of an HIV positive person failing to relay that information to a partner or spouse voluntarily, the real name policy provides for centers to take that action after 30 days, but 94.33 percent found it unacceptable for a disease control center to do so.