PAGE 20 – China
Keywords: AIDS H.I.V Antiretroviral therapy Activist China Doctors Blood trade Blood donation HIV screening Side effects
“I found out about AIDS in 1996. Before that I didn’t even know it existed,” says Gao Yaojie, 79, a retired doctor and HIV/AIDS activist in Henan province, China. “At the time they didn’t even tell us doctors about the disease. As soon as I found out I started to fight against it. They say that I print more brochures than the government. Government campaigns tell people to use condoms, but that doesn’t deal with the root of the problem. Today it’s primarily the blood trade. That’s something that has started up again in a big way.”
Over the past decades, most of China’s 800 million peasants have been left out of the country’s economic boom. In the early 1990s local authorities in poor rural provinces jumped at a lucrative new business: blood collection. In Henan alone, more than 200 “blood heads”—either government-sanctioned or illegal—set up shop. They offered to pay CNY50-60 (about US$6) for every 500 ml of blood extracted. With most of the population living on an income of US$200-300 per year, some donated several times a week. Donating blood often became their main means of support—not to mention a source of extra cash for the rural health care system and paybacks to local politicians from illegal operators.
“Blood comes out and goes back in. Better for your health.” This slogan lured donors, who were rarely screened for HIV or hepatitis. They were grouped together according to blood type, up to 12 donors at a time, and a shared needle was used to extract their blood. The blood was then pooled and transferred to a centrifuge to separate the plasma. After 30 minutes a dose of the pooled red blood cells and platelets was re-injected into the original donors to prevent anemia (and ensure continued donations). Each time, just one HIV-positive donor could potentially infect the other 11 donors. The plasma was sold to national and international pharmaceutical companies.
Fields soon began to fill up with burial mounds. Those infected did not know what was wrong with them and referred to their ailment as “the sickness.” In 2001, the Chinese government finally decreed that blood destined for clinical use would have to undergo HIV screening.
By 2003, HIV had been reported in all provinces where the blood heads operated. Although local authorities estimate Henan’s HIV-positive population to be 8,000, some put it at over one million. “The biggest problem today is the attitude of the local authorities,” says Li Dan, 33, an AIDS activist who works in Henan. “Since image is the most important thing for central government, local officials worry what their superiors will say. If they reveal the magnitude of the epidemic, they risk ruining their reputations. But they are clever. They have selected a few villages, invested a lot of money and turned them into models. But this is not an effective way of treating all the people suffering from AIDS. They are doing it just so they can say, ‘Look how happy these people are. Look how well we are looking after them.’”
Over the past decades, most of China’s 800 million peasants have been left out of the country’s economic boom. In the early 1990s local authorities in poor rural provinces jumped at a lucrative new business: blood collection. In Henan alone, more than 200 “blood heads”—either government-sanctioned or illegal—set up shop. They offered to pay CNY50-60 (about US$6) for every 500 ml of blood extracted. With most of the population living on an income of US$200-300 per year, some donated several times a week. Donating blood often became their main means of support—not to mention a source of extra cash for the rural health care system and paybacks to local politicians from illegal operators.
“Blood comes out and goes back in. Better for your health.” This slogan lured donors, who were rarely screened for HIV or hepatitis. They were grouped together according to blood type, up to 12 donors at a time, and a shared needle was used to extract their blood. The blood was then pooled and transferred to a centrifuge to separate the plasma. After 30 minutes a dose of the pooled red blood cells and platelets was re-injected into the original donors to prevent anemia (and ensure continued donations). Each time, just one HIV-positive donor could potentially infect the other 11 donors. The plasma was sold to national and international pharmaceutical companies.
Fields soon began to fill up with burial mounds. Those infected did not know what was wrong with them and referred to their ailment as “the sickness.” In 2001, the Chinese government finally decreed that blood destined for clinical use would have to undergo HIV screening.
By 2003, HIV had been reported in all provinces where the blood heads operated. Although local authorities estimate Henan’s HIV-positive population to be 8,000, some put it at over one million. “The biggest problem today is the attitude of the local authorities,” says Li Dan, 33, an AIDS activist who works in Henan. “Since image is the most important thing for central government, local officials worry what their superiors will say. If they reveal the magnitude of the epidemic, they risk ruining their reputations. But they are clever. They have selected a few villages, invested a lot of money and turned them into models. But this is not an effective way of treating all the people suffering from AIDS. They are doing it just so they can say, ‘Look how happy these people are. Look how well we are looking after them.’”
Above: House inside rural village of Shuangmiao (top) and Houyang (bottom), Henan, China. Most inhabitants of these two villages are HIV-positive.Back to top : PAGE 20 – China
Keywords: AIDS H.I.V Antiretroviral therapy Activist China Doctors Blood trade Blood donation HIV screening Side effects
“We sold our blood 50 or 60 times. Our arms were covered with needle marks. It was only after six years that they tested us. No one looks after us. There is only one doctor for the 500 people with HIV. He can’t cope and he’s incompetent. Since 2003, if you are HIV-positive you can have a monthly allowance of CNY39 (US$5). That is nowhere near enough. We can’t take the medicine that the government gives us, because the side effects are too strong. It gives you headaches, dizzy spells and nausea. You can’t eat and you can’t even walk or work in the fields. About four people out of every five have stopped taking the treatment. When you have AIDS, people are scared of being contaminated, they don’t want to shake your hand or buy your vegetables. We protested and collected signatures for a petition. But no one dares to defend us. We wanted to sue those responsible for the blood collection stations because it was by selling our blood that we were infected. At the time it was the government that was running those stations. They never admitted it was their fault, and now they keep us from talking. They are waiting for us to die.”
Wang Guofeng, 36, and his wife Li Suzhi, 35, Shuang Miao village, District of Shangqiu, eastern Henan province, China. Both have lost their previous partners to AIDS.
In 2005 private blood collection stations were banned in China, but in the same year, the Ministry of Health reported that Henan had the highest rate of “voluntary” blood donations in the country, leading many activists to believe that an underground blood trade still exists.
Wang Guofeng, 36, and his wife Li Suzhi, 35, Shuang Miao village, District of Shangqiu, eastern Henan province, China. Both have lost their previous partners to AIDS.
In 2005 private blood collection stations were banned in China, but in the same year, the Ministry of Health reported that Henan had the highest rate of “voluntary” blood donations in the country, leading many activists to believe that an underground blood trade still exists.
Above: Yuan Qingfeng, HIV-positive, is testing the “little seed that calms AIDS down,” a new drug;
Below left: HIV-positive woman in Wang Yin, Henan, China. Below right: This mother of three trisomic children died of AIDS-related diseases, Houyang, Henan, China. 90: There is a 90-percent risk of HIV transmission through contaminated blood products, higher than any other means of transmission. 13,000:
In Russia, the number of children born to
HIV-positive mothers now exceeds 13,000.Back to top : PAGE 20 – China
Keywords: AIDS H.I.V Antiretroviral therapy Activist China Doctors Blood trade Blood donation HIV screening Side effects
