"SELL blood - as long as I'm alive and till the end of my life," has long been a popular saying among farmers making a living by selling their blood or blood plasma in Henan, Qinghai, Gansu and other poverty-stricken provinces.

About 20 per cent of the officially reported AIDS patients and HIV carriers in the country were infected due to illegal blood donations, according to Sun Jiangping, an expert at China's Disease Prevention and Control Centre.

Senior officials with the Ministry of Health announced that the country was facing a peak in the number of deaths of AIDS victims. China was listed second after Thailand among Asian countries for the number of AIDS patients and HIV carriers, according to China's Central Television (CCTV).

In some regions of these provinces, 80 per cent of villagers sell their blood frequently.

Unlike the blood heads in the big cities, blood heads among the peasants were farmers themselves and did not make much money. For 400 millilitres of blood they received 150 yuan (US$18) of which the blood head made 15 yuan (US$1.80).

The country's Blood Donation Law stipulate that blood donations must be voluntary but payment can be made for blood plasma because of its commercial uses.

Blood consists of blood cells and plasma and the latter accounts for 55 to 60 per cent. Some components can be extracted from the plasma and sold to biological products companies to process for protein and blood products.

In 2001, 59 out of the 220 plasma collection stations around the country were closed down.

However, on the border of Anhui and Henan provinces, some stations were still engaged in the illegal "trade," according to CCTV.

By convincing one farmer to donate plasma a blood head earned as little as 2 yuan (US$0.24).

Hundreds of Henan farmers took buses to neighbouring Anhui Province to donate plasma with some making as many as 13 donations a month. Needle-marks covered their arms.

A peasant surnamed Chen, together with his wife, saved 8,600 yuan (US$1,000) for his son's high school education fee and then over 60,000 yuan (US$7,200) for his college education from blood donations.

Chen has been making regular donations for 34 years. Every time he gave blood, he had to give blood heads 15 yuan (US$1.80).

In fact, plasma donations by residents from other provinces are forbidden by law but it seems to have been a custom for farmers in the poorer areas to sell blood to alleviate their poverty. (Star News)