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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:13(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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People Urged to Donate BloodChina needs more volunteer blood donors to ensure a safe blood supply, top health officials said at a seminar in Beijing to mark World Health Day, according to report of China Daily.The theme for this year's World Health Day is blood safety. Everyone can donate blood, and everyone may need a blood donation, said Jamos Annus, the representative of the World Health Organization in China. Therefore, everyone should be concerned about the safety of blood supplies, Annus said. Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang, who expressed his appreciation to all blood donors, said a large number of blood donors is needed if China is to have a safe and adequate blood supply. Blood transfusions can save lives, but contaminated blood can also transmit various diseases, such as hepatitis and AIDS. In developing nations, as much as 5 per cent of all cases of the HIV virus, which causes about 2.5 million deaths each year, are transmitted through blood transfusions. Three million people have donated their blood for free since the Blood Donation Law took effect on October 1, 1998. The law eliminated the practice of paying for blood donations and instituted a system of unpaid, voluntary donations. "Our station has received hundreds of people this morning and 22 of them donated (blood)," said a health worker at a blood education station on Wangfujing Street.
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