According to the head of the Shandong Health Department, surnamed Wang, Shandong has to date not has a case of an HIV positive employee being fired.

It is understood that between 1992 and march of this year, Shandong discovered a total of 295 People with HIV or AIDS. There were 240 cases by the end of September, 2003.

Legal professionals say that the health department will truthfully report an patient’s status to his/her employer, in accordance with the regulations in the Infectious Disease Law. But infection is not a crime, and in order to protect the interests of the individual, work units are forbidden from using this as a reason for firing and must protect the rights of the patient.

However, for this law that embodies respect and humane care to receive the approval of ordinary people may require some time. This journalist interviewed a few average people, and none of them had any knowledge about this rule. Even though more than half of them said they understood the means of transmission for HIV, in answer to the question: “what would you do if somebody you worked with had HIV or AIDS?” they still thought that “of course the company should fire them, it’s terrifying to work with people with HIV/AIDS”. There were even some who said that if the company didn’t terminate the employment contract with the person with AIDS, they would rather quit in order to avoid working with that person.

The regulation also stresses that the public must be made aware of the means of transmission of HIV, in order to effectively spread prevention knowledge, and that discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS must be eliminated. Shandong’s prevention target is that, by 2005, 80% of urban residents will have knowledge about HIV/AIDS, along with 50% of rural residents, and more than 85% of members of high risk groups.