AIDS in China
In its 2004 report, UNAIDS estimated that China currently has between 430,000 and 1.4 million people infected with HIV/AIDS. The report went on to predict that, if left unchecked, China could have 10 to 15 million infected citizens by 2010. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, most victims contract AIDS in China through the sharing of contaminated needles among drug users, unprotected sex and prostitution, and unsanitary practices during blood plasma collection.
Henan Province, in central China, is the most heavily populated Chinese province, with more than 100 million people; however, it is also one of the least prosperous regions. Experts estimate that more than a million citizens contracted the HIV virus while selling blood plasma to unsanitary blood banks in the early 1990s.
During that decade, a national blood shortage resulted in a rush to set up blood collection centers in Henan and other less-developed Chinese provinces. Thirty-three centers were created in Henan Province. Some were private, some run by the local health departments, and others run by administrative or collective enterprises. Few were set up with the necessary technical equipment and training to maintain a safe, sanitary environment. These collection centers often shared needles among donors and reinfused unscreened blood into innocent, uninfected donors. By late 1995, the central government had forced all 33 Henan-based centers to close; however, the virus had gotten introduced and a public health crisis of pandemic proportions was in process. Today, blood donors of a decade ago are dying in record numbers.
