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An alert launcher who revealed the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by contaminated blood in central China in the 1990s and who was later targeted by the authorities died, 59 years old while he was hiking in the United States.
Dr. Shuping Wang may have saved tens of thousands of lives when Chinese authorities began testing the diseases in blood banks as a result of his campaign. However, even after his recommendations were followed, Wang faced intimidation as officials tried to conceal public health crises.
Wang was hiking in a canyon in Salt Lake City, Utah when she had what appeared to be a heart attack, said her husband, Gary Christensen, quoted by the Washington Post.
Wang has lived in the United States since leaving China in 2001. She became a naturalized citizen and never returned to her home country because she said she did not feel not safe.
In 1992, Wang sounded the alarm over contamination of blood plasma donors with blood from donors infected with hepatitis C when the latter had been injected into the body of plasma donors.
"My own survey found that the rate of positive antibodies for hepatitis C was as high as 84.3%. As a doctor, I was very anxious, "she wrote. "I knew that hepatitis C and HIV followed the same pathways of infection … I did not want to stay in the Health Bureau office waiting for an AIDS epidemic. I wanted to monitor and warn directly. "
The Beijing Ministry of Health began requiring testing of blood plasma donors for hepatitis C in 1993 after Wang spoke, but she was assaulted, lost her job and her clinic was vandalized.
Then, in 1995, she discovered another scandal in which HIV-positive donors donated blood in a number of areas. Wang asked his superiors to be tested for HIV at all blood collection stations in Henan Province, but was told that it would be too expensive.
She herself purchased test kits and found that the seropositivity rate among the 400 donors was 13%. As a result of its investigation, collection sites in China were closed and subsequently reopened through an HIV test.
In 2001, the government admitted that more than half a million often poor people would have been infected with HIV after selling their blood to collection centers in central China.
A play, the King of Hell's Palace, now in London, was inspired by Wang's story. Chinese security officials have been accused of targeting his family and friends to force the Hampstead Theater to abandon production.
Wang, who would have attended the first, told relatives and former colleagues who asked him to ask him to stop the show, while the authorities were also trying to get the coordinates of his girl.
"The only thing that is harder than standing up to the government and its security police is not giving in to pressure from friends and relatives who are threatened with their livelihoods, all of this because you express yourself, "she said. "But even after all this time, I will still not be silenced, although I am deeply sad that this intimidation is happening again."
She added, "I am particularly worried about my daughter, who is very afraid to be contacted … Their reason is that this piece will hinder and hurt the Chinese government and the reputation of some officials."
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