Chinese blood donor with HIV infects 23 people
Sat Dec 3, 2005 1:18 PM IST

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A blood donor with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, infected at least 23 people in northeast China's Jilin
province before being diagnosed with the disease, state media
reported on Saturday.

The infected donor, identified only by the surname Song and living
in the city of Dehui, was confirmed to have HIV on Oct. 20 after 25
people had already received the blood, the China Youth Daily said.
One victim, surnamed Wang, died on Nov. 10, 40 days after being
confirmed as suffering from AIDS. Wang had received the tainted
blood during an operation in March 2003.

The case was uncovered after Wang's relatives reported the death to
local authorities, who traced the blood back to Song.

Two other recipients of Song's blood have also died from AIDS, while
another 18 have been confirmed to have HIV.

Song's two sex partners, along with one partner's spouse, were also
confirmed to carry the virus.

According to the newspaper, Song had been employed but was unable to
work after being involved in a car accident more than 10 years ago,
and started giving blood for money.

Song gave blood 15 times between January 2003 and June 2004,
according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua said that six health officials in Dehui were either stripped
of their leading posts or placed on probation within the Communist
Party after the case was uncovered.

In an unrelated case involving HIV in China, a 32-year-old drug
addict and HIV carrier in the southern city of Shenzhen was taken
into custody after he held a boy hostage and spilled his blood on
the child during a standoff with police.

Police had come to question the man after his neighbours claimed he
was using his status as an HIV carrier to scare them into giving him
money to buy drugs.

The boy was released after three hours of negotiation and taken to a
hospital where several small wounds were discovered on his body, the
South China Morning Post reported.

He will now have to wait about a week for the results of an initial
HIV test, the paper said.

The World Health Organisation and the Chinese government said in
2002 that China could have 10 million cases of HIV by 2010, a figure
still widely cited.

But earlier this week, the WHO's chief China representative said
improved counting and China's steps to contain the disease mean a
new assessment of infection rates would be significantly lower.

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