Research in a rural province of central China has documented that illegal blood donation practices led to high hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rates in blood and plasma donors during the 1980s and early 1990s, and that failure to screen for HCV in transfusion recipients increased their risk of infection as well, according to an article in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Some blood donation facilities in rural China illegally pooled blood and reinfused compatible red blood cells to permit more frequent donations. Although government action has markedly curtailed such practices since the late 1990s, blood collection and banking methods in such settings still need to be monitored and improved, the article noted.
Researchers from the United States and China, including Han-zhu Qian, MD, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, conducted a survey in 2003 among a random sample of 538 adult residents from 12 former commercial plasma-donating villages in Shanxi Province. Structured questionnaires were administered and blood samples tested for HCV antibodies. HCV rates were 8% in all participants, 28% in former plasma/blood donors, and about 3% in non-donors. Selling blood or plasma was the strongest independent predictor for HCV-positive findings. Receiving a blood transfusion was also independently associated with HCV; villagers who received blood transfusion had about 8 times the risk of HCV infection than those who had no history of blood transfusion.