BEIJING, Dec 8 (AFP) - The parents of a 10-year-old child who died of AIDS after being infected with HIV in a series of tainted blood transfusions, have filed suit against the hospitals, state media reported Sunday.

After a fall when he was two years old, the Nanjing-born child was treated in hospital by medical staff who told his parents he needed a blood transfusion, the Beijing Morning Post said.

Treatment at a string of Chinese hospitals included blood transfusions, one of which transmitted the Human Immunodeficiency Virus to the little boy. He tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS last year, and died in January.

His father is suing three hospitals and four blood supply units in Jiangsu province and the city of Shanghai, seeking a total one million yuan (120,000 US dollars) in damages.

The trial began last week in Nanjing Gulou District Court to widespread denials of responsibility by the hospitals, the daily reported.

In what is widely considered an underestimation of the extent of the problem, China has acknowledged one million cases of AIDS and HIV, up from 600,000 last year.

The United Nations has suggested that the number of Chinese infected with HIV could soar from an estimated 1.5 million to more than 10 million by the end of the decade should the epidemic go unchecked.

Patients who have been infected with HIV through botched blood transfusions are becoming increasingly emboldened to take their cases to court as public awareness about AIDS improves.

In the past year, at least two other families have won lawsuits against hospitals for supplying unsafe blood that infected their loved ones with AIDS, a disease for which there is no known cure.

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