Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Saturday, December 28, 1996 10:59:00 PM.
Half of China's clinical blood supplies and all its plasma for blood products come from paid donors, who are considered at high risk of disease, the Worker's Daily said.
The proposed law, which would ban paid donations and seriously punish blood dealers, was sent to the standing committee of China's parliament this week. It is expected to be approved and take effect in October.
The law would make every healthy Chinese citizen aged 18 to 55 duty-bound to give blood, according to an earlier report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. College students, soldiers and government workers will be asked "to play a leading role in blood donation," Xinhua added.
The law also would prevent blood donation stations and medical agencies from selling blood to blood product companies, it said.
China's paid system of blood donations is thought to attract the most desperate people -- drug addicts, prostitutes, migrants -- who often engage in behavior that places them at risk for AIDS and other diseases.
In April, officials discovered AIDS antibodies in a commonly used Chinese blood product. The Workers Daily said professional blood plasma donors infected with the virus that causes AIDS have been discovered in some areas since 1995.
A Health Ministry survey, meanwhile, said 40 percent to 50 percent of people who move around the country selling their blood plasma were infected with hepatitis C, the newspaper said. In some areas, the infection rate was 70 percent to 90 percent.
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