Infectious disease is part of the human experience. Even outside of the H1N1 flu season, disease would still be the subject of frequent news articles. The purpose of this class blog is to encourage students to aware of epidemic disease stories in the news so as to make connections between current issues and class topics.
“China has lifted a two-decade ban on travel to the country by people who carry the virus that causes AIDS or who have other sexually transmitted diseases.”
The Chinese government has amended a 1986 law governing quarantines as well as a 1989 law regulating entry by foreigners. Before their amendment, these laws prohibited people infected with H.I.V. from entering the country of China. The government has lifted a ban on travel to the country by people with leprosy as well. These changes where reported by the Chinese State Council on its website on Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Premier Wen Jiabao signed decrees putting the new laws into effect on April 24 after the council’s standing committee approved the changes on April 19.
These changes make the official ban on travel applicable only to those who have infectious tuberculosis, serious mental disorders or “infectious diseases which could possibly greatly harm the public health.” In the past, China has made exceptions and temporarily lifted the ban for major events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This time around, the law itself has been amended, indicating that the change will be permanent. According to UNICEF, somewhere between 450,000 and one million Chinese citizens are infected with H.I.V. virus, around 75,000 of which have developed AIDS. Sex workers, migrant workers and residents of some border areas, like the Yunnan province in southwest China, where most drugs are smuggled into the country are among those most commonly infected with the virus.
China is not the only country that has recently revised their laws pertaining to travel bans. In January 2010, the United States dropped its own ban that prevented those with the H.I.V. virus from entering the country. This ban had been in effect for 22 years.
This article caught my interest due to the mention of tuberculosis and the start of the AIDS unit today in class. I was most surprised at the fact that the Chinese government lifted the travel bans temporarily for big events but had not considered permanently changing the law until recently. I think it is a good change but I also think it could lead to huge problems for China in the future. At this point, China has a considerably lower rate of infected citizens than most of its neighboring countries and I feel that this amendment could quickly change that. The bans may not seem fair to the people affected by them but they are put into effect by countries to protect their citizens from becoming infected with harmful diseases.
All i think it is , is that China was trying to keep their residents safe, and help prevent their people from getting the disease but at the same time i think its wrong to say a certain person is banned because of their health state.
I thought this article was very interesting and connected well to our class. I did not know that china, or the U.S. for that matter, had travel restrictions on certain disease stricken people. The rate of people becoming infected must be remaining constant or decreasing if the government is now allowing HIV positive people to enter the country. I think this is great, however, I can't help but wonder if this lift of the ban will have negative effects. It is possible that the rate of HIV infected people will start to rise again with out this law in effect. I think it will be okay as long as safety precautions are taken.
I thought that this was a great article. Lia does a good job summing it all up. This was particularly intestesting to me because I went to China in 2008 and we did have to fill out a form on the plane about our health and if we had any diseases. It was surprising to hear that America had only just started lifting our bans as well. I think it sad that China will not accept mentally disabled into their country. That's probably a leftover from a communist regime. Lifting this ban however will change how fast the HIV virus is spread.
All i think it is , is that China was trying to keep their residents safe, and help prevent their people from getting the disease but at the same time i think its wrong to say a certain person is banned because of their health state.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was very interesting and connected well to our class. I did not know that china, or the U.S. for that matter, had travel restrictions on certain disease stricken people. The rate of people becoming infected must be remaining constant or decreasing if the government is now allowing HIV positive people to enter the country. I think this is great, however, I can't help but wonder if this lift of the ban will have negative effects. It is possible that the rate of HIV infected people will start to rise again with out this law in effect. I think it will be okay as long as safety precautions are taken.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this was a great article. Lia does a good job summing it all up. This was particularly intestesting to me because I went to China in 2008 and we did have to fill out a form on the plane about our health and if we had any diseases. It was surprising to hear that America had only just started lifting our bans as well. I think it sad that China will not accept mentally disabled into their country. That's probably a leftover from a communist regime. Lifting this ban however will change how fast the HIV virus is spread.
ReplyDelete