A shoulder for AIDS patients

BEIJING - When Pang Yu was introduced to people living with HIV/AIDS at a party to celebrate Spring Festival, he felt he might encounter resistance.

"I wasn't afraid of the disease. But I had never met AIDS patients or HIV carriers before. I assumed that they would be quite isolated and wouldn't like to talk about themselves to strangers, and that the presence of a mental doctor would make them uncomfortable," said Pang, a psychologist at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital.

"It turned out that my worries were groundless," the 31-year-old said.