Real-name registry for HIV test in China ‘Controversy’

A health worker draws blood for a HIV test at a department of the disease prevention and containment center in Changning District, Shanghai, east China, Feb. 21, 2012.

Controversy has escalated in China since the country’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region drafted legislation that demand personal information for HIV testing and require those with positive results to inform their spouses and sexual parters.

Althouth advocators see the real-name registry as contribution for public security, many people, particularly those from the HIV-positive community, fear that a real-name registry might create privacy issues and discourage people from going in to be tested.

By far, all districts and counties of Shanghai have offered service for voluntary HIV test, and some 70 percent of test takers have male homosexual behavior. They expressed worries about social discrimination if their private information were exposed. <Photo: Xinhua>

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