Is Real-Name Registration A Must for HIV/AIDS Tests?

Is Real-Name Registration A Must for HIV/AIDS Tests?

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Central China’s Hunan Province announced on February 9 that real-name registration might be required for HIV/AIDS tests this year. Not long ago, real-name registration for HIV/AIDS tests was also mentioned in a draft regulation on AIDS prevention in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. According to the draft, those who test positive for HIV are obliged to inform their spouses within 30 days after the confirmation of infection. If not, the local disease prevention and control agency has the right to inform their spouses.

The proposal on real-name registration for HIV/AIDS tests has triggered debates among the public. Responding to this, Wang Yu, Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), expressed his support for real-name registration, saying that this will greatly help AIDS treatment and prevention.

But a large number of HIV carriers, AIDS patients and some NGOs working on AIDS prevention oppose this proposal, arguing that real-name registration might discourage people from getting tested.

Supporters

LI SHIGONG

Lu Fan (China Central Television): On the whole, real-name registration will help the prevention and control of AIDS. There are several reasons for Hunan and Guangxi to adopt the real-name registration policy. First,the immediate bene fi ciaries are HIV carriers and those with AIDS. Without real-name registration, it’s dif fi cult for medical departments to find these people and thus provide them with necessary follow-up services. Second,real-name registration is good for overall AIDS prevention and control. Although this disease is currently kept in control to some extent in our country, we cannot ignore that in some areas and among certain groups of people, the AIDS infection rate is on the rise.Cases at home and abroad show that realname registration makes it easier to inform carriers and related persons and help them take necessary measures to reduce high-risk actions, so as to mitigate the spread of AIDS.Third, real-name registration will provide useful information to medical agencies, so that they can work out effective policies on AIDS treatment and prevention.

Tang Xuepeng (21st Century Economic Report): Some people label real-name registration for HIV/AIDS tests a violation of privacy. Undeniably, AIDS patients are now disadvantaged people in our society, so we need to ensure their rights and interests. In the meantime, AIDS patients should ignore their own duties, which is to try their best to prevent the further spread of the disease to other people.

In China, more than 70 percent of AIDS patients are infected by sexual contacts, rather than by contaminated blood. They are mainly people between 20 and 40 years old. AIDS can be spread to innocent people, such as a patient’s spouse or sexual partner. So we should not consider it as a “private thing.”

Furthermore, AIDS is more complicated than other diseases. It might be more than a decade before a person with AIDS shows symptoms. During this period, they look normal, and may spread the virus to others at any time. This will pose a huge threat to the health and life of others.

Currently, discrimination is a major problem for AIDS prevention in China. Once an AIDS patient is exposed, he or she will be excluded by society. It is largely the huge pressure from society that makes people oppose the real-name registration proposal. But,this will lead to the reduction of testing. With no testing, how can we carry out the treatment and prevention work?

In addition, the “anonymous” state of HIV carriers or AIDS patients will not last long. As we know, AIDS is a chronic disease, and patients need to receive anti-virus treatment for many years. Also, if one is infected through drug injection, the government will provide methadone for treatment and if a baby is infected at birth, then other ways of feeding are necessary. Thus, once patients enter the treatment stage, they cannot stay “anonymous”forever. That is why even if many people test HIV positive anonymously, they still do not want to receive treatment.

So, I think that the justice of real-name registration is more important than protecting a patient’s privacy or secrets. The infection information of HIV carriers and AIDS patients should be open to their spouses or sex partners. The medical departments need to partly open the information to prevent further spreading of the virus, and patients have the duty not to spread the virus.

Meanwhile, it’s time to work out laws to combat discrimination against AIDS patients.If their personal information is exposed unjustly or revealed to unrelated persons, and they suffer discrimination as a result, AIDS patients should have the right to be compensated.

Opponents

Yang Tongdan (Wenhui Daily): Real-name registration for HIV/AIDS tests is helpful in carrying out follow-up consultation, treatment and research. However, it will easily undermine carriers’ or patients’ privacy. The disclosure of their information can be catastrophic. They might lose their jobs, families,friends and a normal life. If the real-name registration is already an inevitable trend,the precondition must be a well-developed mechanism to protect carriers’ and patients’privacy, and this mechanism must be operable. Otherwise, if people do not trust the privacy protection mechanism, AIDS prevention and control is by no means an easy job.

Today, most people in China do not understand AIDS very well, and HIV carriers and AIDS patients are often discriminated against and rejected. In this context, the direct result of real-name registration is that those who would like to be tested will refrain from doing so. Carriers may try to conceal their disease or even use fake test paper. As a result, the public’s health will be put under even greater danger.

Some experts from the China CDC said once an HIV carrier or AIDS patient is informed of his or her infection, transmission will drop by 70 percent. This is based on statistics and does not suf fi ce to back up real-name registration.

It seems that we need to fi nd milder methods to help those who test HIV positive or are con fi rmed to have AIDS. Instead of frightening them away by real-name registration, it’s better to provide them with guidance on personal activities before and after testing, so as to minimize the risk of spreading their disease to others. By doing so, not only can the disease be effectively prevented from spreading,but the carriers’ and patients’ family members can also be better protected.

Hao Hong (The Beijing Times): The realname registration policy is related to a large group of people, so the decision of carrying out the policy must be made after thorough investigation. It’s important for decision-makers to listen to various voices carefully before working out a rational scheme. Otherwise, a well-intended policy might end up with an unpleasant result, which is against the intention of decision-makers and supporters of the policy.

According to the statistics released by the China CDC on December 1, 2011, by the end of October 2011, the reported cases of HIV carriers and AIDS patients had reached 430,000. But, an estimation jointly made by the Chinese Ministry of Health, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization shows that the total number of HIV carriers and AIDS patients in China could have reached around 780,000 by the end of 2011. We need to think,how many HIV carriers and AIDS patients, as well as their family members, are not under the prevention and control umbrella?

Before we push forward the real-name registration policy for HIV/AIDS tests, we need to make clear the priorities of AIDS prevention and control work in China. What kind of environment and conditions should be created so that those hidden HIV carriers or AIDS patients will come forward to be tested?

Some people think that if real-name registration is not required, carriers and patients will not receive treatment. But, if there are no effective and overall follow-up treatment measures and privacy protection mechanism,real-name registration is meaningless, even if carriers and patients are informed of their disease.