Despite the fact that the fight against HIV/AIDS has been ongoing for over 30 years, many are still unaware of the realities of the disease. While it may be easy to dismiss AIDS as a problem of the 90s, it is still very much a part of today’s world.
Let’s talk numbers. According to the US Department of Health, 36.7 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/ AIDS, with 1.8 million of those being children. The vast majority of those infected live in low- to middle-income countries, namely Sub-Saharan Africa; however, Asia, and China specifically, are no exception.
According to the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease and Prevention, there were 97,000 new cases of HIV in China alone in 2015, with 1,975 of those cases being in Shanghai. The number of those affected in Shanghai depicts a 31 percent increase from those infected in 2014.
While the number of infections is on the rise in China and other areas of the world, there is a general lack of awareness and bias against those who are infected. Local organizations have taken up the cause in an effort to bring about awareness to both the local and foreign communities.
One of these organizations is ShanghaiPRIDE, whose core effort (among others) is to bring more awareness of HIV/ AIDS to the Shanghai community. Raymond Phang, director of ShanghaiPRIDE, explains their challenges, “[HIV/AIDS] remains a taboo in many local communities, schools and corporate environments. Many are not receiving accurate information about the disease and thus have serious bias towards those infected. They have a very difficult time getting back to mainstream society because of discrimination. We think there is still a lot of work to be done locally. While movements on the international level have been running for many years and the international communities are more empathetic, it is still a continuous effort to reach out to the broader audience.”
Shanghai Qingai Health Center has dedicated their work to targeting youth and providing safe sex education, STI and HIV testing, counseling services for those infected and consultancy services for medication and government assistance. Sex education is a priority concern at Qingai and they are trying to reach out to more universities to establish their programs. The challenge they often meet is that sex education is not a priority for Chinese parents.
Robert Bu of Qingai explains, “It is more about the parents’ concern and they are not very open-minded. They think that if you talk about sex, then kids are more prone to having sex. I understand the schools’ concern, but they should learn more about our center and what we do. When we enter into schools we concentrate on talking about preventing HIV and STIs instead of focusing on sex itself.”
While China has made significant strides in making medication and treatments available for those infected, the center hopes to overcome the obstacle of basic mentality about HIV/AIDS, as this is most often their biggest obstacle.
ShanghaiPRIDE, in partnership with Q-Events, will be continuing the annual tradition of the Red Ribbon Gala Dinner at the Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai to honor World AIDS Day on December 1 and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. All proceeds this year will benefit the Shanghai Qingai Health Center and go towards their efforts to expand their safe sex education program to universities across the city. Learn more at www.shpride.com and www. shqingai.com
Dec 1, 7.30pm, RMB900 per seat. Andaz Xintiandi, see event listing.
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