The cultural politics of AIDS and the Chinese State in Late Twentieth Century China (original) (raw)
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In this chapter I discuss the complexities of HIV/AIDS in China. I provide an overview of China’s uneven socioeconomic landscape which facilitated the spread of HIV; the biological transmission paths of the virus; major milestones and key dates and policies; and the latest trends in infections. I also raise some of the frequently overlooked factors that have impacted on China’s experiences of HIV, such as the changing representations of and dominant attitudes to HIV maintained by urban Han Chinese (and the industrial aspects of responses to HIV by local and global health bodies and industrial corporate social responsibility (CSR) platforms). These practices keep HIV/AIDS as a major recipient of donor dollars and social and political attention in China. The aim of this chapter is to provide an understanding of the political, economic, social, cultural and global health issues that have shaped how the virus is spread, managed, engaged by sick and advocacy groups, and perceived by the general public in China.
HIV/AIDS in China: The Economic and Social Determinants (Book Review)
2012
Dylan Sutherland and Jennifer Hsu begin and end their work on understanding HIV/AIDS in China with an insightful quote from Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895): ‘The microbe is nothing: the terrain, everything’. This revelation by Pasteur, reportedly made on his deathbed, contains the central tenet underpinning this book, that is, when it comes to understanding HIV/AIDS in China, the social and economic terrain are vitally important.
Expansion of HIV/AIDS in China: Lessons from Yunnan Province
Social Science & Medicine, 2007
In this article we systematically and critically review the Chinese and English language literature on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related studies in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China. Yunnan Province had the first Chinese HIV outbreak and is still the worst affected area in the nation. Since 1989, HIV infection has extended from injecting drug users into the general population through sexual transmission. Since the economic reform of the 1980s, changed social norms and increased migration have spawned increases in HIV-related risk behaviors such as drug use and commercial sex work. A smaller size of "bridge" populations and lower sexual contact rates between persons in "bridge" and general populations may explain the slower expansion of the HIV epidemic in Yunnan compared to nearby Southeast Asian nations. In 2004, women in antenatal care had a 0.38% HIV prevalence province wide, although >1% infection rates are seen in those counties with high injection drug rates. Patterns of drug trafficking have spread the unusual recombinant HIV subtypes first seen in Yunnan to far-flung regions of China. Increased efforts of Yunnan's HIV control program are correlated with an improved general HIV awareness, but risk behaviors continue at worrisome rates. Future efforts should focus on changing risk behaviors, including harm reduction and condom promotion, especially among the "bridge" groups. The resurgence of commercial sex work in Yunnan, and the high frequency of workers migrating into provinces far from home and family are all sociocultural factors of considerable importance for future HIV and sexually transmitted disease control in China.
HIV/AIDS policy and policy evolution in China
International Journal of Std & Aids, 2005
The early cases of HIV/AIDS in China were mostly foreign nationals. The Chinese government's response then was to stop and prevent HIV from entering China. However, the policy was not effective. From the middle 1990s, HIV/ AIDS spread all over China and all modes of transmission have been reported. By the end of 2003, China estimated that there were 840,000 cases of HIV/AIDS. China's HIV/AIDS policy has been changing along with its epidemic change. Based on an extensive document and literature review, I depict China's HIV/AIDS epidemic and policy and illustrate the main factors contributing to its policy evolution.
Evolution of China's response to HIV/AIDS
The Lancet
Four factors have driven China's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic: (1) existing government structures and networks of relationships; (2) increasing scientific information; (3) external influences that underscored the potential consequences of an HIV/AIDS pandemic and thus accelerated strategic planning; and (4) increasing political commitment at the highest levels. China's response culminated in legislation to control HIV/AIDS-the AIDS Prevention and Control Regulations. Three major initiatives are being scaled up concurrently. First, the government has prioritised interventions to control the epidemic in injection drug users, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and plasma donors. Second, routine HIV testing is being implemented in populations at high risk of infection. Third, the government is providing treatment for infected individuals. These bold programmes have emerged from a process of gradual and prolonged dialogue and collaboration between officials at every lev...
The Yale-China Health Journal, 2003
on the world-wide pandemic to nursing students and faculty at Yale-China's long-time institutional partner, the Xiangya School of Medicine, in Changsha, Hunan. At the time, hiv/aids was viewed by most Chinese as an exotic disease primarily affecting foreigners. With the exceptions of two nurses who had studied in Thailand and spoke movingly of what they had witnessed there, most people in the audience expressed little interest and believed that hiv/aids would never become a Chinese problem. In the years since that lecture, hiv has tragically continued its deadly march, infecting vulnerable populations in every province in China and frequently spreading fear and stigma among both the general public and the health care workforce.
Foreign affairs, 2002
In a stunning announcement last June, the Chinese government revealed that the country could have as many as 600,000 HIV cases. Outside organizations estimate that the number could be two or three times larger. Once dismissed by Chinese officialdom as a Western problem, ...
Governing HIV in China: Commercial Sex, Homosexuality and Rural-to-Urban Migration
2017
Program 3 China's Condom Use Program and the Media 4 Changing Policies on Prostitution, Censorship and Disease Control 5 Health Interventions Focused on Sex Workers 6 Men Who Have Sex With Men 7 Rural-to-urban Migrant Labourers 8 Afterword: Ending AIDS? transfusions; and, in January 1983, the CDC reported cases of AIDS in female sexual partners of males with AIDS. Shortly after the discovery of HIV and the virus' transmission routes, the World Health Organization (WHO) held its first meeting to assess the AIDS situation in October 1983, and began international surveillance resulting in the formation of a United Nations (UN) system on AIDS (Ibid.). The Global Program on AIDS was launched in 1987 to raise public awareness of AIDS, promote research, encourage the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in AIDS-related efforts, champion the rights of people living with HIV, and provide policy, technical and financial support to countries around the world. In 1996, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) was established to advocate for global action on the AIDS epidemic. UNAIDS now heads an international program that aims to unite the UN system, national governments, the private sector, NGOs, and people most affected by or living with HIV, in innovative partnerships to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services. The UN's current mission of ending the AIDS epidemic as a global health threat by 2030, as affirmed in the June 2016 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, involves 'fast-tracking' national health policies to reduce the prevalence of HIV among key and vulnerable populations (United Nations General Assembly 2016). Key populations include sex workers, men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs using non-sterile equipment; transgender people and people in prisons comprise recent additions (WHO 2014, 2015; UNAIDS 2015b: 8). These groups of people are defined as key to the epidemic's dynamics, and hence international and national responses. Key populations are viewed as facing increased risk, vulnerability and burden with respect to HIV and AIDS due to a combination of biological, socioeconomic and structural factors. Yet they often have the least access to prevention and treatment services because their behaviours are stigmatized or even criminalized. Vulnerable populations such as women, migrants and mobile workers do not necessarily face the same