March 14 (Reuters) - An AIDS epidemic in rural China has gained fresh attention after a documentary about it won an Oscar this year, and after a doctor who helped expose the epidemic was put under house arrest to stop her receiving an award in the United States. The doctor, Gao Yaojie, is due to receive a human rights award in Washington on March 14, after officials lifted her detention and allowed her to travel to the United States. Here are some facts about HIV/AIDS in China's Henan province where an estimate 300,000 people were infected with the HIV virus through blood selling schemes in the 1990s: TAINTED BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS: - From the early 1990s until about 1996, commercial blood stations flourished in Henan. Some farmers who sold blood became infected with HIV because the stations used unclean equipment. - Sellers sold blood by volume, so to reduce payments and allow farmers to recover faster, the stations often re-transfused them with red blood cells left after the valuable plasma was taken. These red blood cells were first mixed in batches sometimes tainted with HIV, spreading the disease to recipients. TENS OF THOUSANDS INFECTED: - Henan province said in March 2007 that it had 35,232 cases of HIV infection at the end of 2006, including 21,828 that had developed into AIDS and 7,107 people already dead from AIDS. - But experts and officials believe the real number of HIV cases in China is much higher, as many people go undiagnosed. - Zhang Ke, an AIDS expert at You'an Hospital in Beijing, has estimated that 300,000 people in Henan may have contracted HIV. FREE HIV DRUGS: - From 2003, China began giving free drugs to fight HIV to rural patients who cannot afford such medicines. By the end of 2006, 30,640 patients had received this free treatment. - But the drop-out rate is high (8 percent or higher), due to side-effects and poor monitoring, which encourages more rapid resistance to medicines. PREVENTION AND TREATMENT: - Henan said this month that since 2003 the province has spent 885 million yuan ($114 million) on AIDS prevention and treatment, and it has built 253 village clinics for HIV/AIDS patients. - But many rural AIDS patients in China say they suffer poverty, poor diets and inadequate medical treatment. In a survey of nearly 1,700 such patients from Henan in March 2006, 62 percent said they ate meat twice a year at most. 50 percent said their family made 500 yuan ($65) or less in cash every year. THE NATIONWIDE PICTURE: - In Jan. 2006, China estimated that it had between 540,000 to 760,000 people with HIV at the end of 2005, with 650,000 the most likely number. - HIV has spread in China through injected drug use and sexual contact, but also through infected blood supplies. Sources: Reuters; The Lancet; Chinese Ministry of Health; Xinhua News Agency; Dr. Zhang Ke, You'an Hospital, Beijing
