A different secret
Younger HIV positive patients, like Hua and Ma, have a different experience of the disease than older patients who are already employed. With no income, it is difficult to take expensive drugs and treatment if they do not tell their parents about their HIV status.
Hua said she did not plan on ever telling her family or her friends about her disease, and she used a fake name when taking the test. "I'd rather die than have to tell my parents," she said.
As a university student who cannot afford expensive treatment, she has only accepted the free drugs available at the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Luckily, the free drugs are proving effective and her symptoms have been brought under control.
Hua has been trying her best to save money for more expensive medical treatment. She now has a part-time job teaching piano, charging 500 yuan ($78) per hour. Currently in her third year of university, she is planning to get a job even before she graduates so that she can earn more money for treatment.
"If my students' parents know I am HIV positive, I bet none will bring their children to me," said Hua. "I am also afraid of health checks. If an HIV test is included in an employment check one day, I may never find a job."
Unlike Hua, Ma told his parents about his illness after he learned how much it would cost for the best anti-retroviral. His parents were so sad about the news. They came to Beijing, fearing that Ma might commit suicide, and paid for his treatment and nutritious food and medicine to boost his immunity. To date, they spend about 20,000 yuan ($3,124) each month on Ma's health.
"I feel guilty," said Ma. "Sometimes I think it would have been better for me if I had become infected when I was older, after my parents' deaths."
Awareness and education needed
Chen Zihuang, a staffer working for China's largest gay information website danlan.org, has been organizing free HIV tests for gay people in Beijing. He said that in 2012, 10 percent of gay people coming for a free test were students, and now the proportion is 30 percent.
He said the high rate of HIV infections among young people was indicative of them not acting on their knowledge. "They know that HIV can be transmitted through sexual intercourse and using condoms can lower the risk. But why don't they use condoms? Their knowledge fails to be applied in practice," he said, also bemoaning the lack of sex and gender education in Chinese schools and universities.
Peng went to Sweden in 2002 for a scholar visit and learned that at that time 90 percent of their high school students had experienced having sex. "We can imagine the rate is higher in university. But their HIV and STD infection rate and unplanned pregnancies are among the lowest in the world."
According to Peng, the low HIV infection rate in Sweden can be ascribed to the popularization of sex education from kindergarten to high school. There are also clinics offering free sexual health consultations, treatment and condoms.
Peng suggested free sexual health clinics which offer HIV and STD testing and treatment at every school and residential community.
In light of the trend that Chinese youths are having sex earlier and their poor knowledge of sexual health, Peng said the fundamental solution is to improve the general perception of sex and thoroughly implement sex education at schools nationwide.
According to a 2013 cnr.cn report, more than 50 primary and middle schools in Beijing have started sex education lessons, and parents are getting more receptive toward the classes. "In 2011, when the first sex education textbook was published, many parents were worried about whether it was too explicit, and were reluctant to let their children learn too many detailed things about sex," said Zheng Ju, headmaster of Anhuili Primary School, Chaoyang district. "But two years later, over 95 percent of parents agreed to the sex education."
Wang Zuoshu, head of the China Association for Non-Government Education, who proposed the legislation for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in March, said that sex education for teenagers is an important AIDS prevention method, according to a report from ifeng.com. "Since HIV is infecting younger and younger people, sex education, especially on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, is the most effective measure to reverse this trend," said Wang.
