Chinese AIDS victims blocked from protesting

About 350 people infected with HIV/ AIDS were blocked by police in central China Wednesday from protesting over drug treatments they are receiving from the government, a leading activist said.

Two activists, Zhu Ruiyi and Li Xia, were taken into police custody after trying to lead protesters into Henan's provincial capital, Zhengzhou, the director of the AIDS Action Project, Wan Yanhai, told AFP.

The protesters came from Zhecheng county and most were infected with the HIV virus after they donated blood in tainted government-backed blood drives in the 1990s, Wang said.
"On the way to Zhengzhou, they were stopped by hundreds of police," Wan said.

"They wanted to organise a petition campaign to express concerns over drug treatment."

Police in Zhecheng city refused to comment on the action when contacted by AFP.

The government only recently agreed to provide free medical help for thousands of those infected in the tainted blood drives.

"The current drugs are not effective for these patients because they are becoming resistant to the drugs and lack a second line of medication," Wan said.

"Many of these people are seriously sick. It is only natural that people protest when they feel their lives are threatened."

China's health ministry said last November that 183,733 people were confirmed with HIV/AIDS in the country at the end of October -- a 27.5 percent rise from the end of 2005.

The number of confirmed cases is significantly lower than the estimate of 650,000 put forward jointly by the government and United Nations health agencies in January 2006.