(File photo)

Sha Sha is an 11-year-old girl living in Ningxiang County, Hunan province. She should have been in grade five this year. However, she was instead banished from school after her schoolmates' parents found out that she had been diagnosed with AIDS. In response, Yin Pengbo, the headmaster of Chiduan Wanquan Primary School, decided to give Sha Sha private lessons for half a day every week.

When Sha Sha was 7 months old, her mother died of a brain tumor. Sha Sha was later diagnosed with AIDS in March 2016. No one in their family knows when Sha Sha's father, Wu Pengfei, was infected with HIV. Sha Sha's grandfather said that one day in 2010, when Wu Pengfei came home for a visit, he told his mother that he had AIDS and would one day die from it.

Sha Sha was diagnosed with AIDS due to mother-to-child transmission by First Hospital of Changsha in July of 2014. Sha Sha's grandparents and elder sister all tested negative for HIV.

Sha Sha applied for a leave of absence from school on September 1, 2014 so she could receive treatment in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province. Seven months later, Sha Sha's father died of AIDS.

The latest figures released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that six out of every 10,000 people in China may be infected with HIV/AIDS. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in China had hit 575,000 by the end of October 2015, with 177,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths.

Sha Sha’s case has highlighted the stigma attached to the disease in China, where many sufferers face widespread discrimination. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS is worse in poor, rural areas, such as the community that Sha Sha is from, said Wu Zunyou, Director of China CDC STD and AIDS prevention and control center. Wu said that about 8,000 children under the age of 14 in China have contracted AIDS through mother-to-child transmission, and many of them have a difficult time obtaining compulsory education.

An official from the Ningxiang County education bureau admitted that one-on-one lessons are not the best choice. "In fact, it is illegal since the practice is in violation of the Protection of Minors Act, as well as relevant national legislation on aspects of the legal rights of people living with HIV. But in the current circumstances, we have to guarantee the rights of the majority of students," the official said.