A petition to isolate a small boy has attracted more than 200 signatories in a remote Chinese village requesting “preventative isolation measures by taking Kun Kun [the child] away from the village, and protect the health of the villagers and children.”
Kun Kun lives with his grandparents near the town of Xichong in the southwest Sichuan province. He has been ostracized by the villagers after having contracted the virus from his mother – but was only diagnosed when he was five years old. He is now eight.
The petition additionally says that the boy “now provokes
fear among the community.” Kun, according to the Beijing
Youth Daily report, does not go to school and has been starting
fires and running amok.
“Nobody wants to play with me, so I just play by myself,” he
was quoted as saying by The Independent.
The boy reportedly watched his grandfather sign the petition,
after which he “raced home, climbed into bed, and laid there
wordlessly.” The grandfather had adopted the boy’s
stepfather as a child. When asked why he had put his name on the
petition, the grandfather said that he and his wife had “no
way of taking care of this child” because they were aging
and not in the best health.
Officials are going to attempt to educate the villagers. The
village's party secretary, Wang Yishu, told the Beijing Youth
Daily: “Everyone pities him, he's innocent and after all he's
just a child. But the fact that he has AIDS is too scary for this
village. We don't know what to do with him.”
Villagers have reportedly aired fears that their children could
“catch AIDS” even by coming into contact
with the child, with one even labeling Kun a “time bomb.”
Many comments on the “Chinese Twitter” messaging service, Weibo,
have condemned the attitude. “This has to do with many people
lacking knowledge, and the crux of the matter is there needs to
be more education to avoid more such situations,” a user
wrote.
The Chinese government has attempted to put a stop to such
discrimination though legislation. However, negative attitudes
towards the illness prevail. In August, two passengers sought
legal action against a Chinese budget airline after it did not
allow them on board.