Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Ten years on from the massive sanitary scandal linked to transfusions, the Chinese blood blank is still at risk from Aids. In order to resolve the problem, the public health system needs international help. A report launched yesterday by US based Asia Catalyst, warned. The group helps non governmental organisations on the Asian continent.
Sara Davis, co-author of the report explains: "The demand for blood and blood products is growing in China, and supply is short. This creates an economic incentive for hospitals to rely on illegal, untested blood, and this fuels the spread of Aids”.
In June, the mainland's food and drug regulator said it had discovered fake plasma being used in at least 18 hospitals in the northeast. An estimated 650,000 people are living with HIV/Aids on the mainland, and health experts say the disease is moving into the general population.
Davis continues, “Today, China's blood supply remains dangerously unsafe. Around the country, patients who check into hospitals for routine surgery may check out with HIV/Aids as a result of hospital blood transfusions. This is why the mainland needs to be helped by country’s which have faced similar problems in the past”.
In the ’90s, thousands of farmers in Henan, propelled by crushing poverty, sold infected blood, withdrawn by public institutions without any checks and then used. The scandal allowed the spread of Aids throughout the region. Since then the government has grasped at straws, but last year Gao Qiang (Health minister at the time of the scandal), admitted: “Our blood donation system is far from perfect. Large concerns about its safety remain”.