BEIJING, Dec 1 (AFP) - At least two AIDS patients who travelled to Beijing to highlight their plight on World AIDS Day have been forced to go home by local officials, their friends said.
In addition, dozens of officials from central China's Henan province, where thousands of poor farmers contracted HIV/AIDS from selling blood, have come to Beijing to try to force other patients home, activists and victims said.
"A police officer with AIDS was taken away earlier this week and a retired school teacher was also taken back to Henan," said Wan Yanhai, director of the Beijing AIZHIXING Institute of Health Education, an AIDS non-government organisation (NGO).
The police officer, from Xihua county, in Zhoukou city, Henan province, contracted HIV when he received a blood transfusion with tainted blood following a traffic accident on the job.
He can no longer work and depends on the disability income the police department pays him to survive, said other AIDS patients who knew him.
"He had no choice but to go with them because they threatened to cut off his income," said Sun Ailing, also a Henan AIDS patient.
The retired teacher escorted home, was also from Xihua county, and became infected when she got a blood transfusion while giving birth.
The two are among 30 to 40 people who got HIV from blood transfusions and who came to Beijing for a conference this week organized by the AIDS NGO to pressure the government to offer them redress and economic assistance.
Some of them also wanted to visit Beijing's petition offices to submit letters to the central government.
"There are more than 200 people who came to Beijing to prevent these people from petitioning at the State Council (China's cabinet) and the Ministry of Health," Wan said.
Another woman, Li Xige, who got infected during a caesarean section, was paid a visit by Henan provincial staff late Wednesday. The staff had tracked her down and checked into the two rooms next to hers, Wan said.
She switched hotels later and is in hiding with the others.
Li told AFP Monday she was aware the local authorities were looking for her.
"They called my mobile phone, but I didn't tell them which hotel I was staying in," Li said. "They're afraid of us complaining on World AIDS Day."
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