Infected Chinese Peasants Kept in Hospital During AIDS Conference

Seven Chinese peasants with AIDS who traveled to Beijing for the nation's first conference on HIV/AIDS are now confined at Ditan hospital and will not be released until the conference is over, a source close to them said Wednesday. They have also been denied access to telephones at the hospital, the source told AFP. The villagers, who also came to the capital seeking treatment, were told they must wait for blood tests to determine whether they can undergo an experimental AIDS treatment using Chinese medicines. The patients from the AIDS-ravaged central province of Henan expected the results of the blood tests on Wednesday; however, the source said there was a delay. "They will have to wait until Friday, the last day of the conference, to get the result of blood tests to see whether they take the experimental treatment at home," he said.

Nine peasants, including those at Ditan hospital, have also written to Chinese Vice Minister for Health Yin Dagui to demand an inquiry into the spread of AIDS in Henan, the Beijing Daily Star newspaper reported Wednesday. Their letter called for an investigation into AIDS infection through commercial blood collections in the province during the first half of the 1990s, and for legal action against those responsible. The patients at Ditan hospital say more than half of the 600 people in their village, Dongguan, carry the virus.

China has downplayed the effect of the blood sales and gone to great efforts to prevent Henan residents from drawing attention to their plight. Villagers say officials warned them not to travel to Beijing or speak to the media. According to independent doctors, more than a million people are HIV-positive in Henan alone. At Tuesday's opening of the conference, Dai Zhicheng, an official from China's center for infectious disease, said only "30,000 to 50,000 people, and certainly not more than 100,000" had contracted HIV through selling their blood.

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