Health activists have labelled as unbelievable a government survey which claims no blood is being sold in Henan , the mainland province hit hardest by HIV/Aids. The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that Henan had the highest rate of voluntary blood donation in the country - 100 per cent of blood collected - followed by Hainan with 99.85 per cent, Shandong with 99.83 per cent and Shanxi with 99.31 per cent. 'It's just unbelievable. Many people in Henan are afraid of giving blood after the Aids outbreak in the mid-1990s,' outspoken activist Hu Jia said. 'It's true that many unlicensed blood collection stations have been shut down. But it's hard to comprehend that there's no more blood selling cases there.' Mr Hu said the high ratios in the other provinces were also 'highly unlikely'. He said the government of Henan, one of the mainland's most impoverished provinces, might have fabricated the figures to protect its image. Many farmers in Henan contracted HIV after selling blood plasma in the late 1980s to mid-1990s to unlicensed blood collection centres with poor sanitary conditions. 'Underground blood-selling has largely been eliminated in Henan thanks to public awareness of the risk of getting HIV,' said To Chung, chairman of Hong Kong-based Aids advocacy group the Chi Heng Foundation. 'However, underground blood-selling still exists in Henan and other parts of China.' The quarterly survey ranks 31 provinces, cities and autonomous regions. Tibet came last in the survey, with less than 1 per cent of blood voluntarily donated. Shanghai, Sichuan, Guangdong and Yunnan rank next lowest, with rates between 61.49 per cent and 67.34 per cent in the second quarter. 'I believe the ratio is low in Tibet because the hospitals there usually receive the blood from the outside. Blood donations, paid or unpaid, are not common there,' Mr Hu said. He said giving blood for financial or other rewards such as extra leave was still rampant across the country. Mr To said: 'It's hard to convince poor peasants not to sell blood because they might contract HIV and die in eight to 10 years. They don't even have enough money to get by tomorrow.' There are now 840,000 HIV/Aids cases on the mainland according to official statistics, but experts believe the actual infection figure is higher. The United Nations warns that the number could rise to 10 million by 2010. The Ministry of Health has pledged to stop using all non-donated blood in hospitals by 2008. Before 1998, most of the blood used in Chinese hospitals was bought rather than donated.