Rumors spread that Chinese students infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) had intentionally spread the virus by visiting a Japanese entertainment establishment.
On the 3rd (local time), the Japanese weekly Shukangendai reported that three female employees of an entertainment establishment in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, had been infected with HIV serially. HIV is a virus that leads to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) after an average incubation period of 10 years.
According to the report, it was from last June that the body of a female employee of an entertainment company A began to show abnormal symptoms. The symptoms of a cold began, including swelling of her lymph glands and a fever, and she suspected COVID-19, but the test result was negative.
Mr. A, who was relieved that his symptoms disappeared after taking cold medicine, was tested positive for HIV in a sexually transmitted disease test conducted on all employees at the store in July. In addition to Mr. A, two more women tested positive for HIV.
Through its own investigation, the establishment found that three male Chinese students had spread the HIV virus. The infected women commonly received three Chinese men as guests between January and April. These Chinese students were said to have led a promiscuous life, such as having an orgy party once a month with other international students from Southeast Asia, and all tested positive for HIV.
One of the Chinese students in a police investigation said, “After graduating from graduate school, you have to go back to China. In China, there are no shops as good as in Japan, so I just wanted to play.” I decided to drop it,” he said.
It is known that the female employees of the infected establishment served a total of more than 1,000 customers, receiving an average of 5 customers a day before they found out about the infection. As a result, Japanese quarantine authorities are concerned that it may become the starting point of a large-scale HIV infection.
Masahiro Kami, president of the Medical Governance Research Institute, said in an interview with local media, “The situation is more worrisome for an infected person to transmit HIV to a third party during an asymptomatic period than the rate and scale of the spread.”
On the other hand, it is a crime of injury in Japan for an HIV-infected person to intentionally transmit it to others. However, in this case, the Chinese men shared bodily fluids with the consent of the female employees, and it is known that it is not easy to prove that they are subject to legal punishment because the female employees also admitted that they provided illegal services.
Ji-min Jang, Guest Reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]