China is urged to compensate people infected with HIV through illegal blood selling

The Chinese government has been urged to set up a compensation fund for the victims of an illegal blood selling scandal that resulted in thousands of people in central China in the 1990s being infected with HIV. A new report calls for a full and independent investigation into the number of people affected and an official apology to the people affected as well as compensation.

The report, jointly published by the Korekata AIDS Law Center in Beijing and the US based non-governmental organisation Asia Catalyst, describes the plight of impoverished farmers who donated blood to commercial blood collection centres across central China. The blood was often pooled for centrifugal fractionation, and donors …