HIV carriers and people with sexually transmitted diseases (STD) will be able to take up teaching posts in Guangdong Province from September 1, according to a recently revised regulation from the provincial education authority. The Department of Education of Guangdong Province published the regulation on the physical conditions of applicants for teaching posts on April 16. It no longer stipulated that those with HIV or STDs are prohibited from the teaching profession, despite an earlier draft regulation published at the beginning of the year in which the ban was still listed.
In 2007, Guangdong began implementing a trial regulation on the physical conditions of applications for teachers, in which HIV carriers and people with STDs were automatically disqualified from teaching positions. When the draft regulation was initially published to get public feedback, anti-discrimination NGOs protested that the ban on HIV carriers was still included.
