HIV- hit Yunnan mulls legal punishment for patients who hide illness from partners

Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, a region most affected by HIV in China, will roll out a new regulation next year where HIV/ AIDS patients who conceal their condition from their partners will be prosecuted for legal liability. The regulation has immediately sparked heated discussions.

Yunnan recently issued the strict measures to prevent and control AIDS, which would come into effect next March. It specify that medical institutions have the right to inform HIV/ AIDS patients’ spouses and sex partners if the patients themselves fail to do so. It also said that those who conceal the information from their spouses or sex partners would be held accountable under the law.

For residents who live in AIDS- prevalent areas, the regulation said, there would be free HIV screening for couples before marriage. It ordered all government bodies, organizations and companies to include HIV tests in physical examinations, and civil servants to take the test every half a year.

The rules drew controversy online, where netizens argued over whether the rules have tilted the balance between personal privacy and public health.

Liu Wei, director of the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control, said that the rule on medical institutions’ right to inform patients’ sex partners requires further clarification.

“To diagnose an AIDS patient requires two steps – initial screening and confirmation. Only when a person gets positive results in both tests can he or she be confirmed. The medical institutions that have the right to inform must be those with related qualifications, such as the local disease control and prevention center or other authorized units,” Liu explained.

With these clarifications given, observers believe that the rule will prioritize the right to health, while guaranteeing patients’ privacy to the largest extent.

If the patients choose to engage in sexual activities with another person, then the right to health of the people exposed should be placed above the patients’ privacy, analysts said.