The Chinese Ministry of Health announced here Wednesday that China will conduct nationwide HIV testing among people with blood selling history in the 1990s in an effort to detect AIDS patients on early stage.

The ministry said in an official document that a growing number of HIV carriers have been spotted in areas which were not previously regarded as being seriously affected by the disease, and half of those people had begun to develop symptoms.

Meanwhile, there were still some places where HIV-positive blood sellers remained undiscovered. "Without immediately anti-retroviral therapy, they will die in a short period of time," the ministry said in the document.

It is reckoned by the government that China has approximately 840,000 people infected with the deadly virus, among whom 80,000 have full-blown AIDS. The Ministry of Health said those who became infected with the virus by selling blood around 1995 have entered "the peak of death."

"To detect HIV carriers and AIDS patients among the blood sellers and provide the needed treatment and care are the urgent tasks for China at present in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment," the ministry acknowledged.

The ministry asked local health authorities to make scientific and practical sifting plans based on the adequate information provided by the records of blood banks, hospital death reports, investigations and media reports. "Antibody testing must be available to every person who is found to have sold blood in the 1990s...to have a generally clear picture of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among previous blood sellers," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the ministry requested local health authorities to conduct antibody testing on the spouses and children of previous blood sellers who were found HIV-positive and offer timely anti-retroviral treatment to the patients.

To prevent and control possible discrimination, the ministry also asked health institutions to protect HIV carriers' privacy and keep testing results secret.

According to the ministry, local health departments are called on to complete the work of testing and data analysis no later than April 15, 2005.

Editor: Nit