Female AIDS patients beaten with electric batons in China
AFP. Thursday, January 12, 2006 17:33 IST

BEIJING: Two Chinese women with HIV/AIDS were beaten by police with
electric batons after demanding the release of a fellow hospital
patient arrested for complaining about his stipend, witnesses and a
rights group said on Thursday.

The women were left with bruises on their bodies after the incident
at the People's Hospital in Dehui city, Jilin province, they
said.

The two were among 25 people infected with HIV when the hospital
used unsafe and unscreened blood for transfusions in 2003, according
to the Beijing-based AIDS rights group Aizhixing Institute. The
hospital had agreed to treat them and pay them a daily stipend of 15
yuan (nearly two dollars) after infecting them.

However on Wednesday the patients had failed to receive the money
for two days, and Liu Bingzhu demanded to see the director. When the
director refused to see him, Liu switched off the hospital's
electricity in anger and officials called the police. Liu was
arrested by about 30 riot police who also beat the female patients
when they complained.

About 10 of the patients on Thursday submitted a petition to the
provincial legislature in Changchun city demanding Liu's release and
punishment for the riot police. "What they did was illegal. They're
discriminating against patients," said one of the group, Wang
Shuhong, who also called for the patients to be transferred to
another hospital.

"We got this disease from this hospital. How can they make us stay
here? How can we have confidence in the treatment?"

Six health officials in Dehui were stripped of their posts or placed
on probation over the infections, state media had reported.

Thousands of people were believed to have been infected with
HIV/AIDS by transfusions and unscreened blood, and many victims do
not know they are carrying the disease.

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1007070