Science and Health

UN chief asks SKorea to lift HIV test requirement

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-11-16 16:47

SEOUL - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging South Korea to scrap a requirement that foreign teachers take an HIV test, an official said Tuesday.

South Korea dropped a travel ban in January for most foreigners with the virus that causes AIDS, drawing praise from the United Nations. But it still requires foreign teachers, most of whom teach English, to take HIV tests. The ban is largely the result of pressure by parents.

In a meeting last week with Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik in Seoul, Ban urged that the HIV test requirement be abolished, said Yoo Sung-sik, a spokesman for Kim. Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, was in Seoul to attend a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies.

Kim told Ban he would carefully review the request, Yoo said.

South Korea has faced calls to protect foreign workers from discrimination, and the government is eager to show the nation is changing into a modern society. It's unclear, however, whether the government will heed Ban's call to drop the requirement.

The United States lifted a 22-year-old travel ban against people with HIV in January. China said in April it was lifting a 20-year-old travel ban that barred people with HIV from entering the country.

In South Korea, if foreign teachers test positive for the virus, the government reports the results to their employers. The government cannot deport them, but employers usually cancel the HIV-infected teacher's contract, their teaching visa is automatically nullified, and they then have to immediately leave South Korea, according to the Education Ministry.

Ban's request was first reported Tuesday by the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Calls to Ban's office in New York seeking comment weren't answered early Tuesday.

South Korea has a relatively small number of people living with HIV, though cases have risen steadily. About 7,800 people, including 800 foreigners, were confirmed to have AIDS as of the end of last year, according to the state-run Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts say the actual number could be higher. Many people are reluctant to take HIV tests because of the stigma associated with the disease.

In the United States, the HIV travel ban kept out thousands of students, tourists and refugees and complicated the adoption of children with HIV. It also prevented international AIDS conferences from being held in the United States because HIV-positive activists and researchers could not enter the country.