Take-up of HIV test too low, says govt

The health bureau said Sunday that it plans to put more effort into the supervision and administration of HIV/AIDS testing by tightening cooperation with groups that represent those especially at risk.　

However, an NGO told the Global Times Sunday that in order to establish trust, the government would need to step up its support of these voluntary organizations.

On Thursday, the Disease Prevention and Control Center of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau (BHB) issued a report of the city's HIV/AIDS prevention and control program, aiming to reinforce the testing system targeting high-risk groups such as homosexuals, prostitutes or drug takers.

The report said that the purpose to track the trends in HIV/AIDS is to collect the information needed to make health policy.

Speaking at the 6th Conference of International Cooperation Programmes on HIV/AIDS in China at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, Haidian district on Saturday, minister for health Chen Zhu said the total number of HIV/AIDS carriers in China remain undiagnosed, since many people are unwilling to take a test, the Beijing Morning Post reported Sunday.

Ma Yanming, media officer of BHB said that the fear of a lack of privacy when being tested is unfounded.

"These high-risk people need to understand that hospitals must have their information such as [real] name and ID card number, otherwise we won't know the number of people who have HIV/AIDS," he said.

Ma said that the government is cooperating with voluntary organizations to help get those people at risk of HIV/AIDS tested, and to gather information about them.

Nevertheless, Fan Popo, executive chairman of the Beijing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Center told the Global Times that although the government always wants to reinforce its supervision of those with HIV/AIDS to control its spread, the key issue to tackle is a reduction in the social discrimination these people face.　

"In the gay community, people are afraid their family and friends will find out they are gay if they go to have the test," he said.

"Still others are unwilling to take the test because they really don't know enough about HIV/AIDS," Fan said.

Fan also noted that if government wants to collaborate with the volunteer groups or communities then they should offer more support to them.

"Yet what the government is doing now is oppressing them, which will damage the collaboration between the government and these organizations in this issue," he said.

In another move, the Beijing civil affairs bureau said it will offer children with HIV/AIDS a basic living subsidy to reduce the burden of medical expenses, the Legal Mirror reported Sunday, although the amount of the subsidy was not revealed.