China cancels decades-old AIDS travel ban

China has lifted a 20-year-old ban on people with HIV or AIDS entering the country.

Travel Insurance News - 29/04/2010

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China has cancelled a ban that for 20 years barred entry to people with HIV or AIDS.

The country says the regulation was based on an outdated understanding of the illness. Authorities say they now have much better information about the disease.

The ban was a significant impediment to major international events but of limited benefit to actually controlling the illness. China has in the past provided limited and temporary waivers in some cases.

However, the ban was deemed to have been a major inconvenience when China hosted events like the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The official Chinese attitude to the illness has also changed radically. HIV/AIDS was once seen as an imported disease caused by corrupt Western lifestyles.

Today, China views HIV/AIDS as a public health issue.

In 2009, some 740,000 people in China were HIV-positive. Since the first case was reported in 1985, nearly 50,000 people in China have died from HIV.

Many AIDS patients in China are poor farmers in Henan province. They developed the disease after selling their blood.

Though they sought to supplement their low incomes, the farmers fell victim to the many illegal and unsanitary blood-collection agencies driven by profiteering.

As a result of the regulatory overhaul, travelers with sexually-transmitted diseases and leprosy are also now allowed to enter China.

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