Coronavirus: How one Chinese LGBT+ group is saving lives of HIV patients left on the brink

When China announced a lockdown of Hubei province – the epicentre of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak – Kenneth had less than one week of his HIV medicine left.

“I was very worried. The pressure of revealing my HIV status to the village and losing access to medication was driving me crazy,” Kenneth* tells The Independent from inside Wuhan.

Kenneth was not alone – soon the phones of the staff at the Wuhan LGBT Centre started to get inundated with calls from desperate HIV-positive patients.

“All of the patients were worried about losing access to their medication,” Jerry, who spearheads the centre’s outreach programme, says.

“In one day alone we received over a hundred calls from patients in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province.”

People with HIV face huge discrimination in Hubei’s conservative society, and the Wuhan LGBT Centre is one of the only groups to provide support.

When the quarantine was enforced last month, many patients had returned to their hometowns in the countryside for Chinese new year and had not taken large amounts of medicine with them, for fear it might be found and expose their diagnosis.

When freedom of movement was heavily restricted in the province, they found themselves unable to get to hospitals in larger towns to obtain more supplies. They were also too afraid to tell those guarding the areas why they were so desperate to leave.

Staff at the Wuhan LGBT Centre helped Kenneth go through his options, and he decided to tell his parents that he had to visit an aunt who lives in Huanggang City.

However, when he got to the village’s makeshift checkpoint, he realised he needed another excuse to get the authority’s permission to leave the village. He once again consulted staff at the LGBT centre.

“They told me to tell local authorities that I had chronic health issues and would urgently need to pick up some medication,” Kenneth explains. “I followed their advice and was able to get permission to leave the village.

“However, it took local authorities hours before the committee in charge of village affairs finally agreed to let me leave for Huanggang City. The bureaucratic decision-making process really made my situation more dire and complicated.”

Losing access to antiretroviral medication could bring serious consequences to HIV-positive patients like Kenneth. If patients are not able to take medicine on a regular basis, their immune systems are weakened, making them more vulnerable to other infections – including coronavirus.

“Having access to their regular treatment is important for HIV patients. It is as important as having access to masks and disinfectants during the coronavirus outbreak,” says Adam, who also works at the Wuhan LGBT Centre.

But as the Chinese government has tried to find a way to contain the coronavirus outbreak, hospitals across Hubei province have begun shifting resources away from other illnesses.

“Many medical staff from the HIV programmes at local hospitals or clinics had to be transferred to help treat coronavirus patients, which left all hospitals with almost no staff to help HIV-positive patients,” Jerry explains.

“On top of that, many patients refused to pick up their medications at these hospitals because they worried by doing so they could contract coronavirus.”

But one month in and volunteers are also feeling the immense pressure to take care of their own health, while ensuring HIV-positive patients can receive timely support.

“The amount of pressure we’re having to deal with is probably 10 times more than usual,” says Jerry.

Public transport across Hubei province remains suspended and only cars with government-issued permits are allowed to run on the roads.

The team at Wuhan LGBT Centre has managed to get a volunteer drivers with permits who can pick up medicine, but concerns remain.

Most of their patients have only been given another month’s worth of medicine, which means soon they will have to go through the same obstacles again.

“The longer the lockdown remains in place, the more difficult these patients’ lives remain.”

* All names have been changed to protect their identities