The risk of becoming infected via blood transfusion with AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases is up to one thousand times higher in Russian hospitals than in the West, a leaked report said Thursday.
"The risk of contamination with hepatitis, HIV and other infections via blood transfusions is 500 to 1,000 times higher than in developed countries," Russian health watchdog Roszdravnadzor said in a report seen by daily newspaper Kommersant.Sixty-five people have been infected in this way with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in the past 10 years, the paper cited the report as saying.
The health ministry department responsible for blood donations carries out no tests on its donors and has no inventory of its reserves of blood, the paper said.
On the black market, a litre of blood plasma sells for between 3,000 and 15,000 rubles (90 to 430 euros, 120 to 590 dollars), the paper cites an unnamed drug company official as saying.
Roszdravnadzor proposes the urgent creation of a database of donors and of donated blood, as well as a blacklist of people who should not be donors for medical reasons, Kommersant said.
Source-AFP
LIN/J
