China arrests 15 in AIDS blood donor scandal

China has arrested 15 people for involvement in illegal blood-selling schemes blamed for widespread HIV/AIDS infections in the 1990s, the China Daily said on Thursday.

The arrests were linked to 106 cases of unsafe blood collection, illegal organization of people to sell plasma and "serious malpractice" in blood market supervision, the newspaper quoted Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei as saying.

It did not say when or where the arrests were made, but in the central province of Henan at least 25,000 people, and perhaps as many as one million, were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in the 1990s in a blood-selling scandal initially covered up by the government.

Villagers were paid to give blood that was pooled and the plasma extracted for hospitals. The remainder of the blood was then returned to donors, to avoid anemia, meaning that one infected donor could pass the virus to the others.

Similar schemes led to infections in other provinces.

China, which has raised the public profile of its fight against AIDS, says it has 840,000 HIV/AIDS cases. Experts believe the figure is more likely to be between one million and 1.5 million.

In March, Xinhua news agency reported that the health ministry had closed 147 illegal blood collection agencies and arrested dozens of people since last May to prevent the spread of HIV.

China has been criticized for being slow to recognize its AIDS problem. The United Nations has said the country could have as many as 10 million cases in 2010 if the epidemic is not taken seriously.