Mainland health chiefs warn of resurgence in illegal blood collection
Illegal blood sales - which caused a massive Aids outbreak in Henan province that claimed thousands of lives - have rebounded and are posing a serious threat to public health, top health officials have revealed.
Deputy Health Minister Chen Xiaohong warned during a national video conference that illicit traders, known as 'bloodheads', and underground blood collections had re-emerged and were operating in a stealthier way. His speech was posted on the Ministry of Health's official website yesterday.
Mr Chen said a series of media reports about illegal blood sales in Guangdong and Shanxi and 'bloodheads' forcing people who sold their blood to take harmful drugs so they could give blood more often had alarmed Vice-Premier Wu Yi, who oversees the health sector.
'Recently, bloodheads and blood lords coercing people to take banned drugs to produce more blood for sale has re-emerged in some places and there are still underground blood-collection points in some poor and remote areas. It should be condemned,' Mr Chen quoted Ms Wu as saying.
Deputy Health Minister Ma Xiaowei said Health Minister Gao Qiang had issued a directive urging the central government to ban all commercial blood transactions.
'It is important to address the root cause of illegal blood sales and we should strictly ban blood collection points and hospitals from engaging in any kind of commercial blood contributions and we should use all our efforts to organise voluntary blood donations,' Mr Ma said, quoting Mr Gao's directive.
