Boy with HIV starts school

8-year-old learns on his own after parents' fears about transmission of virus are eased

An 8-year-old boy with HIV in Shufangya, Sichuan province, has been admitted to a primary school after media reported that 203 of the village's 900 residents had put their red thumbprints on a petition last week demanding he should leave.

"Kun Kun (the boy's nickname) has started attending a primary school not far from his home after the local government persuaded the school to accept him. He returned to his home in the village after school," said He Chun, chief of the county health bureau.