Three HIV-positive haemophiliacs who appealed publicly last month for the health authorities that sold them an HIV-tainted blood product to be charged were detained by police in Shanghai yesterday.
The men were taken away in a car by plain-clothes officers after they left a Shanghai hospital after routine checkups. Up to 30 haemophiliacs gathered outside the municipal government building last night to demand their release.
'They need their medicine by 9pm tonight, their conditions are all acute,' said one of the haemophiliacs outside the building, who gave his name as 'Mao-mao'.
He said the trio had participated in a forum about haemophilia in Beijing last month and he believed their detention was related to their appeal at the forum.
They were representing 61 other haemophiliacs in Shanghai who all contracted HIV after using Factor VIII, a blood product used in the treatment of the disease made by the state-owned Shanghai Institute of Biological Products.
The 64 HIV-positive haemophiliacs had been trying to launch a lawsuit against the institute and the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau for a year, but Shanghai's municipal government rejected their claim.