HIV/AIDS victims still battling bias

Despite constant efforts by the government to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, discrimination against the disease is still rife among Chinese people, including health professionals.

A recent survey by the Chinese Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 46 percent of the 9,000 people polled who do not work in the medical field discriminated against HIV/AIDS sufferers. Among the 7,700 health workers surveyed, 25 percent discriminated against people living with HIV/AIDS.

The discrimination tends to take the form of avoiding the sufferers, or to be unwilling to shake hands, talk or dine with them. The survey was conducted in 18 cities of seven provinces including Jilin, Gansu and Liaoning.