The present situation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is very grin in China.
The probability of China becoming a country with a high prevalence of
HIV/AIDS cannot be excluded because there have been factors which prom
ote the wide spread of HIV if we fail to take timely action to prevent
it al the opportune moment. However, China's HIV prevention policy is
inadequate. Health professionals and programmers believed that they c
ould take a conventional public health approach to cope with the HIV e
pidemic. They simply ignored the fact that HIV infection is an epidemi
c so special that their approach is not effective to deter the epidemi
c. Many health professionals and programmers bypassed ethical issues t
hat had emerged in the prevention of the HIV epidemic. Even some healt
h educators, sexologists and officials believe that 'AIDS is the punis
hment for promiscuity', and this belief has led to discrimination and
stigmatization of AIDS patients, HIV positive people, their family mem
bers and high risk groups. Although homosexuality is not illegal, the
police can always find any reason to detain homosexuals. A difficult e
thical issue is about the laws prohibiting prostitution and drug Else
in China which force prostitutes and intravenous drug users undergroun
d, giving them no chance to access information, education and the serv
ices needed to protect them. The dilemma facing China is whether to st
ay with a restrictive policy for the reason of ideology cleansing or t
o turn to a more supportive policy. It is necessary to have some chang
e in the ethical framework to evaluate the action in HIV prevention. T
olerance should be the first ethical principle.