Time Examines Discrimination Against HIV-Positive Children in Vietnam

Time examines the discriminatory efforts to keep Vietnamese children living with HIV out of the country's public schools even though, by law, children cannot be barred from school because they or any of their family members have HIV/AIDS.

"Discrimination against people living [with] HIV/AIDS is nothing new," the magazine writes. "But the irony in this case is that Vietnam has some of the most sweeping HIV/AIDS laws in the world, says Jesper Morch, the UNICEF representative in Vietnam." Yet, "[u]nlike the epidemic in parts of Africa, where the virus has cut a large swath through entire communities and few have been untouched, the number of HIV-positive persons in Vietnam is less than one percent."

The article reports on what the schools are doing to increase HIV-positive children's access to school, including door-to-door efforts to educate parents of school-aged children about HIV (Kennel, 8/24).

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