Prison doctors devoted to treating inmates with HIV/AIDS in SW China

YUNNAN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- With a stethoscope, flashlight, medicine kit and blood pressure meter, doctor Fan Yunfu busily shuttles between inpatient wards. Those in Fan's care are prisoners with HIV/AIDS, patients uncommon for many doctors.

Fan, Head of the Jianshui Prison Hospital in southwest China's Yunnan Province, has devoted himself to patients from the Eighth Prison Ward, which was created in 2008 exclusively for prisoners who are either HIV carriers or AIDS patients.

Since then, Fan and his colleagues have been working hard in treating their patients.

In 2006, on the day his daughter was born, Fan Yunfu accidentally pricked his hand when sewing the wounds of a long-time drug addict. It wasn't until after emergency treatment and two weeks of self-quarantine that he was finally able to see his daughter.

So far, nine incidents of occupational exposure have occurred at Jianshui Prison Hospital. Doctors involved have to take AIDS-blocking drugs for about a month each time, suffering both physically and mentally. Fortunately, none have been infected.