BEIJING, Aug 11 (AFP) - Actor Roger Moore, goodwill ambassador of UNICEF, on Wednesday lashed out at the Beijing hotels and schools which have turned away a group of 71 "AIDS orphans" who came to the Chinese capital for a summer camp.
The former James Bond star said the schools and hotels who closed their doors on the children whose parents died from AIDS after selling blood in central China "should hang their heads in shame" for not helping them, Xinhua news agency reported.
The children are not infected, but the schools and hotels worried their students or guests would feel uncomfortable knowing their facilities had been used by AIDS orphans.
The summer camp was organized by AIDS activists and volunteers partly to raise awareness about the plight of the orphans, many of whom are left to fend for themselves with no help from the government.
Their parents sold blood to earn money, often to build their homes or pay their school tuition. The blood was pooled and reinjected unscreened into sellers after the plasma was extracted, causing large scale infections.
Moore applauded another hotel, located in the western outskirts of Beijing, which later accepted the children, the report said.
Moore was quoted as saying "there should be no stigma or discrimination" against the orphans and they should not lose their friends and jobs.
Some 78,000 children have lost parents to AIDS in China, said UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund.
Emerging from early denial that China has a exploding AIDS problem, the central government has now vowed to fight discrimination against the growing population of HIV/AIDS patients, who officially number 840,000 carriers.
The true figure is believed to be much higher and the United Nations says the number could rise to 10 million if the epidemic is not treated seriously.
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