Hunger Strike for AIDS(13)HIV patient Wang Qiu Yun HIV Patient considers taking her own life in desperation

空腹健身运动 

Hunger Strike for AIDS

Hunger Strike for AIDS (13):

HIV patient Wang Qiu Yun HIV Patient considers taking her own life in desperation.

HungerStrikeforAIDS.org Published on 2008, Nov, 27^th：.

December 1st 2008, this year’s World’s AIDS Day, HIV/AIDs activists and supporters from around the world will be carrying out “Hunger Strike for AIDS” for a period of 24 hours. The theme this year is: the second “Hunger Strike for AIDS”, focusing on caring for China AIDS NGOs and activists, and starting a donation drive to set up the “China Non-governmental Red Ribbon Award”. We’ll be engaging in a four-week long activities in the hopes to collecting 4000USD for this Award. Please support and participate in this effort with us. Please visit the relevant website: www.HungerStrikeforAIDS.org. Up to 2008, November 27th, we have collected registration from 74 individuals from 16 countries. Collected donations include 50 USD and 1600RMB.

HIV patient Wang Qiu Yun HIV Patient considers taking her own life in desperation.

A Chinese female HIV patient takes desperate measures as her negotiations with the hospital which administered HIV-contaminated blood to her broke-down. We call on the world public and media to pay attention to her plight and offer assistance in anyway we can to promote a solution to this case.

Contaminated blood leading to HIV infection

Wang Qiu Yun is a 38-year old female, a long time resident of Hebi City, Henan Province. She led a normal and happy life with her husband and child, but around January 2005, while others are busy purchasing presents for the New Year and making plans for family get-togethers, Wang Qiu Yun was busy shuttling between hospitals due to a long spell of unexplained fever and general body fatigue. Finally in April, 2005, she was tested by a provincial hospital for HIV and the result revealed that she had contracted HIV. Due to the extreme weakness of her body condition then, she was diagnosed with AIDs and was informed that she may not have long to live. Wang Qiu Yun traced the source of infection to HIV-contaminated blood administered to her during an operation done in Hebi No. 1 People’s Hospital. From other patients whom Wang Qiu Yun befriended during her hospital stay, she realized that because she contracted HIV due to contaminated blood, she was entitled to HIV treatments and monitoring free of charge, a service/ policy provided by the national government.

The difficult road of appeal

However, upon returning to their village, they were told by the local health authority that they have no adequate supply of anti-retroviral drugs available and the market price of such medication were beyond the financial capabilities of her family. Out of desperation, the family filed a legal suit against the hospital which administered the HIV-contaminated blood that led to her sickness. The law suit turned into a 6-month wait, with no updates or further notifications, the family decided to visit the local judicial office to inquire about the case status. They were confronted by hostile officers who refused to offer further information on the case and forcefully expelled them from the office with aid of security guards. Since then, the family have made repeated trip for appeal at city, county, provincial and finally, at the national level in Beijing. But all such appeals were made to deaf ears, in Beijing; they were taken by police and escorted back to Henan, ending their hope of demanding justice to their suffering through the proper legal frameworks set up by the country. During these appeal visitations, they were also subjected to brutal discrimination and Wang Qiu Yun’s HIV status confidentiality was breached, subjecting her family to prejudice and drastically impacting their quality of life back in the village.

Desperation and final call for help

Three years have passed sine Wang Qiu Yun took legal action, and still there are no clear solutions to her appeal of compensation to her loss of job, decrease in living qualities and the medical expense costs. In desperation and a breakdown in negotiations with the Hebi No. 1 People’s Hospital, where she contracted HIV, Wang Qiu Yun has now occupied the office of the director of hospital, demanding further negotiations with the hospital staff. So far, there has been no response from the hospitals’ administrative staff. Wang Qiu Yun occupied the office since Nov 24^th, and currently her families are responsible for supplying her with food and other daily necessities while the hospital’s relations department had a representative who keeps a vigilant observation of her daily activities. Wang Qiu Yun desperately hopes to re-open possibilities of negotiations and conversations with the hospital concerned, and has vowed that if no progress is made by Dec 1^st, World Aids Day, she may consider taking her own life in despair and desperation.

HIV-infection via contaminated blood in China

HIV/AIDs has reached epidemic proportion in China with an estimate of 700,000 (or 0.1% of total population) individuals living with HIV/AIDs according to WHO 2007 report. The main methods of HIV transmission in China are through MSM, heterosexual intercourse, IV drug injections, and perhaps unique in China, the use of HIV-contaminated blood. Due to short supplies of donated blood, hospitals often lack sufficient serum and blood in cases of operation, creating a black market where private business recruit poor individuals to “sell” their blood for a monetary compensation and subsequently sell these blood to the hospitals. The first cases of HIV-infection due to contaminated blood was discovered in Henan province and have subsequently discovered nation-wide.

Additional Information:

Hebi No.1 People’s Hospital (鹤壁市第一人民医院)

Website: www.hnhbyy.com

Hospital director: Zhang He (张鹤)

E-mail： hbyywz@163.com

Tel (电话)：0392-2627526, or 3331557

Fax (传真)：0392-2627526

Hebi City Government (河南省鹤壁市人民政府)

Contact Tel (联系电话)：0392-3317733

Website: www.hebi.gov.cn

Wang Qiuyun 王秋云

Cell Phone：13783012240

E-mail：aidsrights.net@gmail.com

www.aidsrights.net

www.hungerstrikeforaids.org

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12月1日世界艾滋病日 “空腹健身运动”
December1,World AIDS Day “Hunger Strike for AIDS”
★http://www.HungerStrikeforAIDS.org
★ AIDS Right:https://www.aidsrights.net

为艾滋病防治努力一生！
Devote my life to the AIDS prevention and care work！
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