Can I get deported if I get HIV only after I've lived in China and from a Chinese citizen?

[陳德聰]

Just a heads up for @abcdefg AIDS and HIV are terms used for different things and you can contract/transmit HIV as in the virus, not AIDS the syndrome of late-stage infection. In China I believe people use 愛滋病/艾滋病 for both, which can be confusing.

[abcdefg]

Yes, you're right 老陈。Common everyday speech as used by the man in the street doesn't usually make the distinction between HIV and AIDS as it should. Indeed it can be confusing. I think it's more a matter of "laymanspeak" than of the Chinese language not being rich enough for science.

 

Here's HIV = 人类免疫缺陷病毒

 

-- Picture is from an article which has other useful related terms for the curious:

 http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=4keFIKCnU7NY2_Lyg7GN4uFt-WoEAIIvDC2kbCLKRTEvMtIgI7TeYpVrJ3cxf2GL2d1KznujbUlG9OkU8ikw4MpIiQUr2EkBJu1uTtdxQ5C3BZTyJijz2t-nuHh0dZlsDfs5z6agArZbgDIF77wtV3EyO0UFOTEj18O9wxON7lAvLE8BHyVk8DgFwVgzmbo-jypnDL_8NX9-5VNFrvsjbK  

 

Unrelated to VD, but related to medical vocabulary -- Last night I watched a special program on TV about Tibetan Medicine, which a scholarly panelist said predates TCM by at least several hundred years.

 

They started with a discussion of "fire branding" crucial spots where acupuncture meridians 穴位 intersected on the head. The treating instrument was heated red hot and applied directly to the scalp for a brief second or two. They used several different metals: iron, copper, silver, and gold, according to the patient's symptoms and what they thought had caused them. The skull was often the locus of this treatment since they excelled at dealing with conditions such as stroke, vascular migraine, and intractable cranial neuralgia.

 

The panelist representing TCM said he thought these heated branding irons were in some ways similar to moxabustion 灸, but stronger. Tibetan medicine did a type of acupunture 针灸 with thicker needles, larger than a toothpick, also made of non-standard metals, including silver and gold. They claimed the ultra-thin 毫针 of TCM were not adequate for many situations. As in TCM, the needling done in TTM was often combined with smouldering moxa 艾绒。

 

The panelists claimed Traditional Tibetan Medicine (TTM) had a leg up on Han Medicine (TCM 中医) because Tibetan religious practices required that the doctors and priests jointly dissect bodies of the deceased prior to sky burial. Unless the cause of death was obvious, like being run over by a truck, they were bound by custom to give the relatives some explanation of the terminal illness. These semi-sacred post-mortem examinations had the benefit of allowing them to gather medical/pathological knowledge.

 

They talked some about special medicinal herbs, roots, and trees that grew only on the high plateaus 高原 and how they were used in decoctions and in curative soaking baths. They maintained that the physiology of people living at these altitudes was different from low-landers, and thus mandated different diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

 

The show contained so much specialized language and so many obscure (to me) technical terms. The Pleco dictionaries in my hand were also frequently at a loss. Interesting stuff, and I was impressed by how sophisticated it was.

 

[Flickserve]

On 24/02/2017 at 4:39 PM, Mas said:

little relieved and hoping the other ones will be the same results..

 

Hope it works out for you. Like the others mentioned, it would be so helpful if you could pick up some of the phrases and post them here. Not necessarily the ones with your doctor but even with nurses or other interactions. Usually the sentences in books are pretty light and general. Of course, you are going through a stressful experience but I think this kind of vocabulary is difficult to find and might help other people navigate a hospital system.

[rezaf]

It seems like taobao has many different brands of HIV self-tests like this:

https://detail.yao.95095.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.6.ogLJLU&id=42097642939&cm_id=140105335569ed55e27b&abbucket=13

 

I wonder how accurate they are but reading the comments it seems like the fear of AIDS is making a lot of people paranoid.

[abcdefg]

OP, Mas, this is your party, and I'm sure you will do what you think is right. But I don't recall seeing any mention of telling your sex partner about your testing, even though the preliminary results are good. For many reasons, that's an important thing to do. In the panic of the moment, please don't be selfish and overlook it. If the other person is known HIV positive, perhaps you can influence them to get professional evaluation and treatment.

[Mas]

On 2/26/2017 at 11:07 AM, rezaf said:

 

Aren't there some self-tests available for those who are concerned about their privacy?

 

unless you are a doctor that will do his own tests and prescribe meds for himself then i doubt you can ever truly have it private, one way or the other your doctor has to know, maybe one or two nurses, because thats the only way they will be able to help you, and anyway hospitals arent allowed to give details about a persons health to anyone, they can only take surveys of it but not state names or anything, you know the whole doctor patient confidentiality, and also these guys dont care about you like in terms of knowing your status, they deal with thousands if not millions with the same stuff so its really nothing to them, otherwise you do actually have your privacy..  

[rezaf]

No I meant  you could buy the HIV self-test kits online and test yourself at home. This way no one will know the result. 

 

 

[Mas]

14 minutes ago, rezaf said:

 

No I meant  you could buy the HIV self-test kits online and test yourself at home. This way no one will know the result. 

 

 

i dont think so, because this is a very serious disease thats incurable so the government will need to know how many people have it and how to deal with it you know, all those stuff, well thats what i think anyway..

[jgraham11]

Maybe I missed this, but did you use protection? I know a lot of people who freak out about getting HIV even if they wear a condom. I was one of those people when I was young too. If you did then you really have very little to worry about. The statistics of contracting HIV while wearing a condom are something like 1 in 10,000 I believe. I know there's a good website called thebody.com which has good information

 

Even if you didn't wear a condom and your partner was positive the chances are still extremely low like 1 in 250 or in that range. All my stats were coming from the medical professionals i've seen write about this on the body and CDC. 

 

[rezaf]

4 hours ago, Mas said:

i dont think so, because this is a very serious disease thats incurable so the government will need to know how many people have it and how to deal with it you know, all those stuff, well thats what i think anyway.

You can easily buy them in China. So unless the big brother has cameras inside everyone's home then I don't see how they can know about the result.

[Lu]

@jgraham11, while the odds are in everyone's favour, people still contract HIV on a daily basis. You don't want to be the 1 in 250 and not know, or even one of the 249 who is fine but worrying. If you have reason to suspect you might have HIV, the wisest thing to do, by miles, is to get tested. (And if you're not 100% sure your partner doesn't have HIV or AIDS, the wisest thing to do by miles is use protection when having sex.)

[Mas]

12 hours ago, jgraham11 said:

 

Maybe I missed this, but did you use protection? I know a lot of people who freak out about getting HIV even if they wear a condom. I was one of those people when I was young too. If you did then you really have very little to worry about. The statistics of contracting HIV while wearing a condom are something like 1 in 10,000 I believe. I know there's a good website called thebody.com which has good information

 

Even if you didn't wear a condom and your partner was positive the chances are still extremely low like 1 in 250 or in that range. All my stats were coming from the medical professionals i've seen write about this on the body and CDC. 

 

 

no i didnt thats why im doing this, even if there is a 1 in 250 im not planning to fall into that 1, so best i do something about it. waiting to see if i contracted HIV or not doesnt work because once i get it i have it there wont be any cure right so now i have to live with it because what, i had to hope that i dont have it??? its irreversible so why risk it.. i know the PEP treatment is expensive but the amount it costs for it doesnt even compare to what i will cost to pay for ARVs or any other for the rest of my life, and if i get a partner not HIV positive we will have to pay of PErP in addition to that, and even when having babies you will also pay to try protect the baby, and the costs go on and on.. so its just better not taking any chances you know..

[Mas]

11 hours ago, rezaf said:

You can easily buy them in China. So unless the big brother has cameras inside everyone's home then I don't see how they can know about the result.

oh my bad, i didnt know they existed, my answer was based on them not existing, i have not heard of it before or anything similar though.i guess you can get that privacy, but either way i think its better dealing with the doctors cause they know what they are doing and how to help..and anyway say you do the test privately and it comes back positive where do you get the ARVs from? arent they prescribed or just given from the hospital directly? because if they are then either your doctor is going to end up knowing isnt it..

[Mas]

On 2/27/2017 at 4:02 PM, abcdefg said:

 

OP, Mas, this is your party, and I'm sure you will do what you think is right. But I don't recall seeing any mention of telling your sex partner about your testing, even though the preliminary results are good. For many reasons, that's an important thing to do. In the panic of the moment, please don't be selfish and overlook it. If the other person is known HIV positive, perhaps you can influence them to get professional evaluation and treatment.

 

oh, my bad, yes i did, well it wasnt taken well at first but because i was at least honest about it and that im taking immediate action for it we came to an understanding. so all is well, for now anyway. we havent had sex after the episode but we did talk about how to handle ourselves when we do have it cause even if you are under PEP treatment you can still spread it thats if you have it. so we are being careful there..

[Mas]

On 2/27/2017 at 10:42 AM, Flickserve said:

Hope it works out for you. Like the others mentioned, it would be so helpful if you could pick up some of the phrases and post them here. Not necessarily the ones with your doctor but even with nurses or other interactions. Usually the sentences in books are pretty light and general. Of course, you are going through a stressful experience but I think this kind of vocabulary is difficult to find and might help other people navigate a hospital system.

in my state i wasnt really in any mood to be catching phrases, just wanted to get it done as fast as i could, so translator all the way, and they rarely spoke anyway and when they did they tried using english but in like one words, they knew how to say AIDs, HiV, STD, STI.. and mind you i said this was for the nurses.. the doctor spoke english and fluently too..

[jgraham11]

3 hours ago, Mas said:

no i didnt thats why im doing this, even if there is a 1 in 250 im not planning to fall into that 1, so best i do something about it. waiting to see if i contracted HIV or not doesnt work because once i get it i have it there wont be any cure right so now i have to live with it because what, i had to hope that i dont have it??? its irreversible so why risk it.. i know the PEP treatment is expensive but the amount it costs for it doesnt even compare to what i will cost to pay for ARVs or any other for the rest of my life, and if i get a partner not HIV positive we will have to pay of PErP in addition to that, and even when having babies you will also pay to try protect the baby, and the costs go on and on.. so its just better not taking any chances you know..

 

Well, this is a totally different discussion but I think the cure to HIV is closer than many people think. I know there was some vaccine that was just reported by the Guardian that said it cured 5 patients or something. It was once used as a cancer treatment. But that's a discussion for another post..

 

Curious to know your outcome though, keep us updated and good luck!

[陳德聰]

For the vocab junkies:

 

Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): 暴露前預防性投藥

- continuous preventative treatment for people at high risk of contracting HIV, effective to as much as 90%

 

Post-exposure Prophylaxis (PEP): 暴露後預防性投藥

- preventative treatment for people who have been exposed, generally is the same as/similar to the antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV

 

Antiretroviral Therapy (ART): 抗逆轉錄病毒治療

- treatment for people who have contracted HIV that effectively prevents it from ever becoming AIDS

 

Viral Load: 病毒載量

- what gets lowered through ART, also lowering the chances of transmitting the virus to another person

 

Undetectable: 檢測不出

- what happens to your HIV "status" when you take antiretroviral drugs properly for several months, meaning you still have it but the amount in your body is small enough that it is "undetectable"

 

As far as I'm aware, PrEP aka Truvada(tm) is not available in China, which is altogether unsurprising, so even if OP wanted to go on PrEP and supppement with condom use it would cost even more to bring it in from elsewhere.

[Mas]

On 3/1/2017 at 0:13 AM, jgraham11 said:

Curious to know your outcome though, keep us updated and good luck!

hey guys,, sorry i didnt get back sooner, had forgotten my password and a lot was going on, but anyway, i just came to update the forum..

finished my meds for one month and did the test afterwards, it came back negative,, and im now waiting for the 6th month test which should be in 3 or 4 months, feeling confident so ya.

[imron]

Thanks for the update, and hope everything works out for the last test.

[Lu]

Thanks for the update, glad to hear that you're still negative!