The family of a Chinese woman who died from AIDS after she was infected with tainted blood during a transfusion in a State hospital has been awarded a record $1.2 million by a court.
In the landmark case, the hospital in China's central Hubei province was ordered to pay the money by way of a lump sum and annual compensation to the dead woman's husband and daughter, both who have tested positive for HIV.
Recently the Chinese authorities acknowledged for the first time an AIDS epidemic in Henan Province arising from the operation of illegal blood banks in the mid-1990s. In one village in Henan, Wenlou, it is estimated 65 per cent of the population has either AIDS or is HIV positive.
The Wuxian People's Court made the compensation payment in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
A hospital official said they had not yet heard details of the court verdict, but commented: "Our business is being seriously affected." The dead woman and her husband had sued the Nanzhang County hospital which had given her blood transfusions during childbirth. The husband and newborn daughter tested HIV positive soon afterwards. The court said the hospital had collected and provided blood without state licences and that it had given the dead woman blood, which had not been tested for HIV.
Last month, China admitted it was facing a serious AIDS epidemic with reported HIV infections surging 67.4 per cent year on year to 3,541 cases in the first half of 2001. Chinese Health Ministry experts have said the number of cases could be more than 600,000 and the UN has said China would have 10 million sufferers by 2010 unless it acted decisively.