Keeping it quiet: Life as an HIV carrier

Gao Xianmei says she does not remember the date when she was diagnosed as HIV positive. There have been more important things to keep track of since that dark day, most of all, hiding it from others.

"If others know I am an HIV carrier, my whole family will be humiliated," says the 35-year-old farmer in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Since China reported its first AIDS case in 1985, the world's most populous nation has recorded 319,877 HIV infections, including 49,845 deaths by October, according to the Ministry of Health.