Xu Qin/Shanghai Daily news

To donate blood to save lives in danger is noble and praiseworthy.
But the risk of AIDS infection from unsanitary blood collection and transfusion through the illegal blood trade without testing or sterilization is obvious.
Nineteen HIV/AIDS patients have sued the Employees Hospital of Bei'an Construction Farm in Heilongjiang Province for 30 million yuan (US$3.69 million).
All of them have contracted the AIDS virus after having HIV-tainted blood transfusions during operations at the hospital between 1997 and 2002.
The "blood ghosts" who had sold or "donated" HIV-tainted blood to the hospital are said to have died of AIDS a few years ago.
And the chief three hospital officials linked to the sale of unsafe blood were sentenced to two, five and 10 years' jail on June 14, this year.
But what of the lives of the HIV/AIDS patients who are now suffering isolation, discrimination and desperation, knowing that the deadly virus will eventually kill them?
Who is going to be responsible for them even though top officials were punished or fired and blood dealers were fined?
The AIDS epidemic caused by unsafe blood collection and transfusion is not new. From the end of the 1970s until the middle of the 1990s, because of the negligence of some local governments and the greed of the underground blood-collection stations and of the "blood heads" who organized the sale of blood, the illegal sale of blood plasma in many villages in Northeastern China was possible.
This month, another six top health officials in Dehui, Jilin Province, were stripped of their posts or placed on probation within the Party after one man's HIV-tainted blood infected 21 others.
The 41-year-old donor, not knowing he was infected by the HIV virus, made 15 blood donations to the Central Blood Bank of Dehui between January 2003 and June 2004.
It was the ignorance and irresponsibility of the local public health administration that led directly to the spread of AIDS in that area today. The epidemic revealed how vulnerable the blood supply is to AIDS. It also served as a wake-up call to all.
Blood should be collected at qualified facilities with trained medical workers and strictly tested for diseases and inactivate viruses.
To stop the AIDS epidemic, effective measures need to be taken to reduce mistakes in blood handling on top of punishing a few of the unworthy.
AIDS is already a lethal disease. Let's not create another lethal disease: Negligence of duty and blind pursuit of profits. The cases in Heilongjiang and Jilin might be stand-alone ones, but the lack of professional ethics on the part of hospitals is never an individual phenomenon.
How can doctors, who are supposed to save our lives, aid and abet crimes in such a disheartening way?