2004 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 1st prize
Photographer

Lu Guang

13 July, 2002

Qi Guihua, held here by her husband, fell ill when she returned to the village from Beijing to celebrate the Spring Festival. She died two hours after this photograph was taken.

In the mid-1990s, poor peasants in Henan province sold their blood for 50 yuan a pint, enough to buy two bags of fertilizer. As a result of unsafe procedures, a large number of them were infected with the HIV virus. In some villages up to 40 percent of the inhabitants are seropositive, but for a long time have been isolated from help because the existence of AIDS in China was not officially acknowledged.

Even today, many villagers are uncertain whether they are infected and cannot afford a test, which costs 80 yuan. Organized help from local health authorities is underway, but many people do not have the money to go to hospital and are cared for by family and friends.

About the photographer

Lu Guang

Lu Guang was born in 1961, in Zhejiang Province, China. He has been passionate about photography since he held a camera for the first time, in 1980 when he was a factory worker i...

This image is collected in