BEIJING – China’s top AIDS specialist has urged tougher punishments for hospitals
caught denying treatment to HIV/AIDS patients.
“HIV discrimination at hospitals
might cost lives and is groundless. So far, no medics have contracted the virus
after performing medical treatment, including operations for people with
HIV/AIDS,” said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS and
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control and Prevention, which is under the
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wu made the comments to China
Daily on Wednesday in response to a recent medical scandal involving HIV/AIDS
discrimination at medical facilities.
A 25-year-old man, Xiaofeng (not
his real name), was forced to hide his HIV status to receive lung cancer
surgery after being rejected by two hospitals, The Beijing News reported on
Wednesday.
China issued regulations on
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in 2006. The regulations stipulate that if an
HIV/AIDS patient has other illnesses, hospitals cannot refuse treating an
illness on grounds that the patient is HIV-positive.
“However, the rule was not fully
implemented, given that hospitals might cite other reasons to refuse treating
them,” Wu said, urging hospitals to practice self-discipline, and health
authorities to punish violators.
On Nov 12, a hospital in Tianjin
conducted lung-cancer surgery for Xiaofeng, but found later that he faked his
medical records, hiding his HIV status.
Li Hu, head of Haihezhixing, a
Tianjin-based non-governmental organisation that helps HIV carriers in local
communities, posted a message about the incident on his micro blog on Nov 13.
“The man had no choice but to
alter his medical record after the Cancer Institute and Hospital of Tianjin
Medical University refused to treat him,” Li said in the message. “Only in this
way could he avoid the pre-surgery blood test and have the surgery done.”
According to the discharge note
Li provided to the media, Xiaofeng stayed in the hospital for more than two
weeks. The note shows that he tested HIV-positive, and was “not fit to have
surgery”.
The man then went to Beijing’s
Ditan Hospital, a facility that specializes in treating infectious diseases,
including HIV/AIDS.
Not the first of its kind
However, Ditan Hospital doesn’t
have a thoracic department, and thus couldn’t perform surgery on the man, Li
said.
“I got to know Xiaofeng on Nov 6,
when he failed to seek surgery in the two hospitals,” he said. “Another HIV
carrier called me and told me his story.”
Li said he knew Xiaofeng decided
to fake the medical record he got from the cancer hospital and submit it to the
third hospital. “Our strategy was to have the surgery done first, and tell
medical workers that he is HIV-positive as soon as the surgery was finished.”
Li declined to disclose the name
of the hospital where Xiaofeng underwent surgery, but said the head of the
hospital was “furious” when Xiaofeng’s father told the hospital that Xiaofeng
was HIV-positive.
Xue Lei, an HIV carrier and also
a volunteer at Aizhifangzhou, an HIV-carrier rights advocacy group in Beijing,
said the incident is by no means the first of its kind.
“We have seen many cases where
hospitals refused surgery for HIV carriers. The root cause is that they are
afraid that they might be infected with the virus,” he said.
“I was severely injured in a car
accident in 2010 and needed urgent surgery. When the blood test result came out
after the surgery, the hospital doing the surgery told me that I must go to
other hospitals for further treatment, such as hospitals assigned with the task
to treat HIV/AIDS. It kind of forced me out after I stayed for seven days,
while I needed at least a month to recover.
“Despite regulations, there is no
punishment for hospitals when such incidents occur,” Xue said.
Source: China Daily/Asia News
Network
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