On Thursday, May 13, 2021, more than 50 attendees gathered over livestream for the webinar, “HIV in China: How the Politics of Scandal and Redress Have Shaped the Epidemiological Landscape,” with Professor Kumi Smith, an epidemiologist focusing on HIV and STI prevention in global settings. Professor Smith described her personal career journey with China and epidemiology, which led her to work at China’s National Center for AIDS, where she learned the highly politicized nature of HIV in China does not always translate into abundant resources for public health workers.
Smith went on to discuss the unique context of HIV in China and the blood head scandal in the 1990s, when poor farmers were infected with bloodborne diseases, including HIV, through mass blood plasma selling scandals. The scandal and the activism that followed led to the creation of a nationwide free treatment program for anyone infected with HIV, regardless of how they had gotten infected. Despite the success of the program, however, challenges remain, as HIV patients often encounter significant stigma in the wider health care system.
Smith also discussed a project to employ the Standardized Patient approach, a commonly known tool for training medical students, to research how doctors respond to patients when they do not know they are being observed. Partnering with the local LGBT community in Guangzhou, the team researches how HIV stigma and homophobia affect patients’ health care experiences. These incognito visits are yielding useful data for improving health care for stigmatized populations as well as patients as a whole.
Smith concluded with an appeal that joint scholarship between the U.S. and China is more important than ever. Direct connection with colleagues can provide important dialogue channels for transmitting information when talks at the top level shut down, or can act as a valve to release pressure when tensions rise.
In the Q&A session that followed, Smith answered questions from audience members on issues including the relationship between the Chinese CDC and the American CDC, and the results from Professor Smith’s research on stigma in healthcare. Associate Vice President and Dean of International Programs Meredith McQuaid delivered closing remarks and thanked Professor Smith for her presentation.
About the Speaker
Kumi Smith, MPIA, PhD, is an epidemiologist focusing on HIV and STI prevention in global settings. A family trip in 1991 first piqued her interest in Chinese language and culture which she went on to study as a history major at Yale. She returned to China in 2007 to work for the Clinton Foundation in Beijing as one of few foreigners seconded to the 400-person HIV division of the Chinese Center for Disease. She has continued to collaborate with Chinese health departments and community groups to conduct epidemiological research during her doctoral training in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and now as an assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at UMN. Her interest areas include infectious disease dynamics, social determinants of health, and health equity, and in addition to China she has worked on projects in Vietnam, Malawi, India, and a number of U.S. settings.