Blood plasma samples sold to customers suspected to have HIV virus, come out negative

Chinese health officials on Thursday said tests conducted on a batch of human blood plasma, which was feared to have been contaminated with HIV, came out to be negative for the AIDS causing virus. The officials were probing reports that a Chinese pharmaceutical company may have sold over 12,000 units of a blood plasma product contaminated with HIV.

The results of nucleic acid test (NAT) for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C on the drugs manufactured by Shanghai-based China Meheco Xinxing Pharma Co Ltd were all negative, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) said in a statement. The HIV tests conducted on patients in Jiangxi were also negative, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The NMPA said the samples they had examined from a batch of 12,229 bottles of intravenous immunoglobulin were free of HIV and hepatitis B and C. The administration's clearance of the batch contradicted a notice from the National Health Commission on Tuesday announcing its contamination and warning hospitals to immediately suspend use of the treatments, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported Thursday.

The provincial health commission and disease control centre in eastern China's Jiangxi province had detected traces of HIV in the batch, although the disease control centre told The Beijing News on Wednesday that it had not yet discovered any cases of patients having contracted HIV. This latest blow to confidence in China's health services came less than a month after it was revealed that 145 children in the eastern Jiangsu province were treated with expired polio vaccines, sparking widespread protests from parents and the investigation of 17 local officials.

In July last year, as many as 252,600 faulty rabies vaccines made by Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology, one of China's biggest vaccine firms, were found to have been administered to thousands of toddlers. Similarly in October last year, state-owned Changchun Changsheng Biotech Co in Jilin province, whose rabies vaccines were recalled from India after they were found faulty, was fined USD 1.3 billion by China's State Drug Administration. In the 1990s, thousands of cash-strapped villagers in China's central Henan province contracted HIV after being persuaded by middlemen to sell their blood illegally in the black market, the Post report said.

(With inputs from agencies.)