CHINA - AIDS has become widespread in Henan Province with one of the main causes being the unsanitary devices used in the practice of selling blood. But the victims are not only from Henan. Some farmers from Chongqing who were working in Henan were also infected.

Chongqing City Health Department said that two farmers who worked in Henan in 1994 died of AIDS this year. Xinhua News confirmed that including these two cases, seven people from Chongqing were infected with AIDS while working in Henan, where they had sold blood.

Chongqing Health Department officials said that these seven people had worked by digging tombs in Nanyang, Henan in 1994. They were infected when they sold blood at an illegal blood station.

AFP reported that three of the seven infected people died last year, but it was unclear whether they died of AIDS. Of the two deaths this year, one was a suicide because the person had lost all will to live. His wife was also
tested HIV-positive.

In 1980s and 1990s, illegal blood selling and collection was very common in Henan. Due to the use of unclean devices, thousands of farmers had been infected with AIDS virus. This has led to Henan being the province with the
most serious AIDS problem in China.

Gao Yaojie, a retired doctor from Henan Province, has been an active volunteer in educating Chinese farmers about AIDS prevention and offering free treatment to patients who couldn't otherwise afford medical care. However, she was harassed by the Henan government. She received the 2001
Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights and the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. She could not go to the Philippines to receive the Magsaysay Award because the Chinese government denied her
request for a passport.