China Says It Faces Threat From Illegal Blood Sales

Years after illegal blood sales touched off an AIDS outbreak in central China, the Health Ministry admitted such sales still threaten the nation's hospitals. "The phenomenon in some areas of paying for blood supplies, or making money from blood, still exists, and there are hidden dangers for blood safety," the ministry said on Thursday.

The government has vowed to "strike hard" and "come to a conclusion in a timely way" when such practices are uncovered. In addition, the ministry said it would work to encourage voluntary blood donation.

While authorities have tried to improve blood collection in recent years, problems persist. This week, the nation's food and drug regulator said it had learned fake plasma was being used in at least 18 hospitals in northeast China as well as in Tibet.

In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of farmers in the province of Henan became infected with HIV through unsanitary blood-buying schemes that were often operated from state-run health clinics.

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