Contaminated blood products remain one of the major channels for
spreading HIV/AIDS in China, and many hemophilia patients have been
diagnosed with the deadly virus after using a blood coagulation
factor produced by Shanghai
Institute of Biological Products. Some have died.
The shocking news is that China's common blood products are not
under germ "inactivate treatment" at all, though relevant
regulation was issued in 1995 by the Ministry of Health.
Blood factor is used in the treatment of hemophilia, a disease
that makes the patient's blood difficult to clot. In the early
1980s, when acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first
detected, there was no screening test for the HIV virus, to prevent
it from contaminating blood products.
China Sodality of Hemophilia, a non-governmental organization,
spontaneously founded by hemophilia patients, have recent
statistics showing that four hemophilia patients from Guangdong and
54 from Shanghai, who had taken Lyophilized Human Coagulation
Factor (LHCF VIII) produced by Shanghai Institute of Biological
Products, were confirmed as infected with HIV.
In an interview with Shanghai Daily in December, Yang
Shaogang, who also acts as a counselor for the city government,
said 55 local hemophilia patients have since contracted AIDS. Their
families suspect they caught HIV after using LHCF VIII.
Another test carried out in December 2003 in Guangdong
Province indicates that among the 28 hemophilia patients who
received the test, seven were infected with hepatitis C, but no one
has HIV.
The result is far from optimistic, anyway, according to Huang
Zikai, vice director of the sodality. So far, there is no overall
test covering the whole province of Guangdong and some patients
have died with unknown reasons.
In China, LHCF VIII was once considered as an expensive medicine
for most patients. During a long period, LHCF VIII served as an
effective and trustful medicine among hemophilia patients, many
even depending on it. However, after taking the medicine for a
period, many patients began to show symptoms such as frequent
fever, loss of hair and weight, pneumonia and abscess. Then they
were detected to have HIV.
Mr. Kang, a man from Changsha, capital city of Hunan Province,
has sued the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products for its
unsecured blood product. He claimed he was infected with HIV and
hepatitis after taking LHCF VIII, and the institute intentionally
covered up the information. He asks for a compensation of 1 million
yuan.
Kang believes that since the manufacturing process did not
include germ elimination and inactivate treatment, the LHCF VIII he
used is a high-risk medicine to spread the deadly infectious
diseases. Following Kang's suit, four other patients from Jilin,
Liaoning and Hunan provinces have also sued the Shanghai Institute
of Biological Products. The Shanghai People's Court of Changning
District is now handling their cases.
To help local victims, the Shanghai government and philanthropy
organizations provide free medical treatment and a monthly subsidy
of 1,000 yuan (US$121.07) since 2003.
China's coagulant and other blood products were manufactured
without germ and virus elimination process and inactivate
treatment, until July 1995 when the Ministry of Health issued its
Document No. 5 to forbid the use of such products, claiming that
they “may spread diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B and C.
It is known that the latent period of the onset of AIDS is five
to ten years. If a hemophilia patient took the tainted blood
product before 1996 and was infected with the HIV virus, he is at
high risk of the onset of AIDS now.
It is reported that in China, 95 percent of patients chose
plasma and other cheaper blood products that have no inactivate
treatments.
Another problem is the "window period." This is the name used
for the period from the time patients come in contact with HIV to
developing antibodies, a period of usually two weeks to six months
but no longer than a year. Due to that fact that all donated blood
plasma in China is not under a supervisory inactivation process,
doctors are in no position to clear "bad blood."
Jiang Chaofu, president of Guangzhou Blood Center, said, "Since
1993, every year, HIV-infected blood is detected." In 2002, among
250,000 donated blood samples, 32 were HIV-infected. Jiang also
said that, although the LHCF VIII that was produced after 1996 was
safer because it had been inactivated, other donated blood is still
at high risk of dangerous disease and harder to control.
The danger of bad blood lingers on.
Hemophilia: Any of several hereditary
blood-coagulation disorders in which the blood fails to clot
normally because of a deficiency or an abnormality of one of the
clotting factors. Hemophilia, a recessive trait associated with the
X-chromosome, is manifested almost exclusively in males.
(China.org.cn by Li Liangdu, January 16, 2004)