Fighting to teach with HIV

"I feel I'm closer to my dream of being a teacher and I'm so happy about that."

These were the words of Xiao Qi (a pseudonym), when he heard that the Guangdong provincial government had lifted a ban - which now stands in every province but Guangdong - that prevented HIV carriers from becoming teachers.

Xiao received a high score in the teaching qualification exams in June last year, but the local education bureau in Jiangxi Province rejected his application when medical tests showed that he was an HIV carrier. He sued the bureau for discrimination and received 45,000 yuan ($7,275) in compensation, but didn't get the job.

Xiao is optimistic that the lifting of the ban will eventually spread nationwide, however, obstacles remain. As of October 2012, there were 492,191 people with HIV/AIDS in China, according to the Ministry of Health, but NGOs say public awareness of the disease still remains low, often leading to outright fear and resistance to the lifting of the ban.

Fierce resistance

The lifting of the ban came about after education authorities in Guangdong Province released online a draft of new health standards for teaching candidates. When the clause barring HIV carriers from teaching was exposed, critics pointed out that it was a form of discrimination.

A staff member from the office of teachers' qualification in Guangdong Province told the Global Times that they had consulted medical experts and decided to remove the clause.

When the final revision of the regulation was issued in April, the clause was removed, but education authorities then came under fire by those who claimed it would put children's health at risk. In a particularly incendiary example, a teacher surnamed He made a threatening phone call to the Equity and Justice Initiative (EJI), a Shenzhen-based NGO that had been campaigning to remove the clause. According to a report in the Nandu Daily, the teacher later apologized for his aggression, but remained adamant that HIV carriers should not be permitted to become teachers.

He is far from alone in his attitude. Some parents in particular have been vocal in their objections, particularly given a recent spate of sexual assaults on primary school students by teachers. Many teachers are also reticent.

A high school teacher surnamed Xia, in Guangzhou, told the Global Times that if HIV carriers joined her school, other teachers should be informed of their health condition so that they can prevent students from getting infected.

"If the teacher has a wound, and children cut themselves carelessly, which is often the case, there's a possibility that children could get infected without anyone knowing the teacher has HIV and raising the alert," Xia said.

However, Shen Jie, vice director with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times that this risk was "very low."

"HIV isn't transmitted through routine daily activities. It's true that when blood is transferred through direct wound contact the risk of infection is high … but the chances of that happening are very low. That could happen under any circumstances, so we should consider the issue from a more scientific perspective."

Guo Bin, director of the EJI, suggested that people should not link the issue of HIV with the recent concerns over security in schools, and said that the issues should be addressed separately. He also urged parents not to attach moral labels to people who have HIV.