University sells HIV testing kits in vending machine

Pic info: Fan Bingbing’s edited selfies. A Chinese university has started selling affordable HIV urine test kits in an attempt to curb the rapid rise of the disease amongst the country’s youth. Photos being shared on social media sites show the 30 RMB (3 GBP) kit being sold inside a vending machine - right next to instant noodles and other snacks. The appearance of the test kits, which cost just 10 percent of the reported market price, in the Southwest Petroleum University in Nanchong City, in south-western China, signifies the Chinese government’s newfound urgency in battling the issue. While HIV affects a relatively small amount of Mainland Chinese people, the illness appears to be on the rise amongst the country’s youth, who have received notoriously poor sex education over the years. Amongst those affected, reports in local media said young secondary school and university students stand out, particularly young men who have had sex with other men. HIV and AIDS awareness, which is a topic seriously lacking in the Chinese curriculum, is one closely followed by China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan, but it will be difficult to change decades of mass discrimination towards those suffering the epidemic. HIV-positive patients in China have a tendency to be shunned by their acquaintances and even their own families because of a supposed link to homosexuality, making them even more unlikely to speak up or seek professional help. But affordable and accessible testing methods, such as offering kits through vending machines, may be a way forward for the rising amount of afflicted youth. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), there are over half a million people living with the disease in China. But reports citing research done at universities in Nanchang City, capital of East China’s Jiangxi Province, showed that there was a 43 percent year-on-year rise in infection rates amongst young students, and 80 percent of those occurred (AsiaWire)