Health

In China, 64 get hepatitis from one blood donor

by Suranee | April 1, 2009 at 07:16 pm

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Around 64 people who received a blood transfusion at a hospital in the Giuzhou Province in southern China have been infected with hepatitis C due to the blood being contaminated.

Authorities at the hospital say that the contaminated blood has been traced to a donor who had sold blood to the facility from 1998 to 2002.

It was in September that the contaminated blood was detected when a former patient had developed symptoms of hepatitis C after receiving a blood tansfusion during a Caesarean section in March 2001.

At least 64 people have been infected with hepatitis C after receiving transfusions of tainted blood at a county hospital in southern China, a hospital official said Wednesday.

Authorities at the Guizhou Province hospital traced the infections to contaminated blood from a donor who had sold blood to the facility from 1998 to 2002. The police have detained the hospital's former chief on suspicion of illegally collecting and using the blood, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency. Hospital officials also blamed improper screening of the blood supply for the spread of the infection.

The tainted supply was discovered in September, when a former hospital patient developed symptoms of hepatitis C.

Xie Yong, deputy head of the Pingtang County People's Hospital, said that the former patient had received a blood transfusion during a Caesarean section in March 2001.