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 - Friday, October 25, 1996.
John Leicester, Associated Press Writer
The discovery, the first known case of its kind in China, highlights problems in the poorly policed Chinese medical system -- particularly its blood supply.
In April, tests found AIDS antibodies in Wolongsong, a brand of the blood protein albumin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday in the first official confirmation of the contamination. Chinese inject themselves with albumin to boost resistance to disease.
The Public Health Ministry ordered a ban on the sale and use of the albumin -- produced by a military-run factory and available in clinics and pharmacies -- and told health officials to destroy stocks, the Foreign Ministry said.
It did not say when the ban was ordered, nor whether any vials were still on the market.
Health Ministry officials in charge of the case in Beijing and Guangdong, the southern province where the contaminated vials were discovered, refused to discuss the matter. Nor have state-run news media reported it.
The Health Ministry's silence comes despite warnings last week from Health Minister Chen Minzhang that ignorance about AIDS could help the disease spread in the world's most populous nation.
"This shows there are blood donors who give blood who should not give blood and that in this population of blood donors the virus is circulating," said Emile Fox, head of UNAIDS in Beijing, which oversees U.N.-backed AIDS programs in China.
Fox said Chinese Health Ministry officials told him the tests showed no signs of active HIV, making it extremely unlikely anyone could actually contract AIDS from the albumin injections. Nevertheless, the case appeared to confirm long-held suspicions among health officials that AIDS could seep into the population through China's blood banks.
The blood banks often rely on money to entice people to give blood. The system attracts drug addicts and prostitutes, who engage in behavior that places them at risk for AIDS.
The Health Ministry disclosed last week that 4,305 people were known to be infected with HIV as of Sept. 1, although experts believe the real number of cases could be as high as 100,000.
Workers at two Beijing clinics visited Friday said they stocked Wolongsong as late as May or June, up to two months after the AIDS contamination was discovered.
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