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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:12(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Donation Vital to Blood Safety: Health OfficialsChina has to expand its team of blood donors to ensure the supply of safe blood, according to officials with the Ministry of Health (MOH)."China still has a long way to go to guarantee blood safety even though it has encouraged blood donation since the 1980s and pushed forward the implementation through enforcing a national blood donation law on October 1998," said Health Minister Zhang Wenkang. About three million people have voluntarily donated blood to save thousands of lives since 1998, he told a seminar here today to mark the World Health Day 2000, which is dedicated to the theme of blood safety. But the MOH officials admitted that clean and safe blood is far from being enough, and safety problem in blood transfusion remains serious due to illegal blood deals. Diseases transmitted through blood transfusion such as hepatitis B and C, and AIDS, endanger blood users' health. Up to five percent of HIV infections worldwide are transmitted through the transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products, "and the proportion in China is much higher," said Shan Ouqi, an MOH official who is in charge of blood management work. China is estimated to have more than 500,000 HIV carriers.Many Chinese still believe that giving blood is harmful to their health. Other obstacles preventing the spread of blood donation include the lack of blood donation institutions and blood testing facilities, and unnecessary use of blood during surgery, said Shan.
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