New York Times Profiles Family That Received China’s Largest AIDS-Related Judgement
The New York Times yesterday profiled Shen Jieyong, the Chinese man recently awarded a record $1.2 million settlement after his wife died of AIDS last year as a result of an HIV-tainted blood transfusion. The Shen case, in which the hospital that performed the transfusion was found negligent in procuring and screening blood, "contains all the sub-plots that will make HIV a challenge to control [in China]: ignorance, denial, discrimination, weak laws and a rural health system that is expensive, corrupt and virtually bankrupt," the Times reports. Although the government recently acknowledged that it is facing an AIDS epidemic and has designated $117 million this year to clean up the nation's blood supply, it remains "unclear" how many Chinese have been infected through blood transfusions and donations. Though the government places the estimated number of HIV-positive citizens at 600,000, independent observers say as many as one million Chinese could have HIV. The full article is available online on the New York Times Web site (Rosenthal, New York Times, 9/16).
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