Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 13, 2001
Jeremy Page

But Health Minister Zhang Wenkang offered no new initiatives or policy changes at the opening of the conference, which did not involve any HIV or AIDS victims.

And at a news conference afterwards, Chinese health officials said mass HIV infections from illegal blood purchases in central China were confined to about 12 villages, despite widespread reports to the contrary.

U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot said Monday blood banks had also caused mass infections in neighboring Shanxi province, and urged the government to face up to the problem, warning that China was on the brink of an AIDS epidemic.

Beijing admits it has a serious AIDS problem but health workers say their work is being thwarted by widespread ignorance and prejudice about the disease, especially among local government officials.

MINISTER DETAILS ACTION PLAN

Zhang detailed an "action plan" issued by the State Council, or cabinet, in May to ensure the safety of blood donations, boost AIDS education, improve training of health workers, and develop reliable HIV monitoring systems.

"The goals are: by the year 2010, to reduce or perhaps eliminate the annual increase in STD cases, and secondly, to keep the number of HIV infections to less than 1.5 million," he said.

The United Nations estimates China has about one million HIV carriers. Chinese health officials put the figure at 600,000, but there were still only 28,133 HIV cases officially registered by the end of September this year.

Zhang said improving the understanding of the Chinese leadership was a key part of the action plan.

"We must take AIDS very seriously in view of the fact that it is linked to the rise, fall, progress and development of the nation," he said.

And he stressed the need to "seek truth through facts" and publicize information about the disease.

ILLEGAL BLOOD BANKS

However, Zhang did not attend a news conference after the opening ceremony.

And Qi Xiaoqiu, from the disease control department of the Health Ministry, told reporters illegal blood-buying had only caused HIV infections in a handful of villages in Henan.

"According to what we have learned from some local reports, such as in Henan, this is concentrated in about a dozen villages because in these villages, it was a traditional custom" to sell blood, he said.

Local reporters and AIDS activists have reported HIV infection rates of up to 65 percent in some Henan villages where farmers responded to government calls through the 1990s to sell blood.

Unregulated blood banks paid the farmers 40-50 yuan ($5-6) per sample, mixed the donations, extracted plasma and then pumped the residue back into donors, AIDS campaigners say.

State media exposed the scandal early this year, and after months of silence the government admitted there was a problem in Henan in August and said it had sent teams to investigate and set up clinics.

But a group of eight Henan farmers infected with HIV from blood sales said this weekend they had been given no medicine, information or advice.

They sent conference organizers a petition urging the central government to give them financial, medical and welfare support, and to punish those responsible for the Henan scandal.

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