作者/编辑：钟然
责任编辑：罗志飞 校对：李杰 翻译：刘芳
摘要：90年代河南“血浆经济”导致大规模艾滋病感染，政府为掩盖工作失误打压抗艾勇士高耀洁，至其被迫移居美国最终在美逝世。
1992年，河南省卫生厅和河南红会血液中心达成协议，将血液计划指标一次性拔高到原来的两倍，企图超额完成分配的献血指标。在当时的中共河南省委书记李长春以及担任河南省卫生厅厅长的刘全喜大力推动下，卖血更是成为一种风潮，政府更是提出了“要想奔小康，赶紧卖血浆”的宣传语，而河南睢县电视台更是在广告中宣称“不卖血就是不爱国”，大量农村人口参与其中。
1996年，高耀洁教授在河南省会第一次会诊到艾滋病人，发现感染源来自于血库，随后开始对艾滋病疫情的调查，并自行出资进行防艾宣传活动。在深入调查后高耀洁得出令人震惊的结论，河南省内共有140万人参与“血浆经济”，以每个县平均2万人感染计算，至少有102万人感染艾滋病！
河南省商水县西赵桥村一家四口，丈夫和妻子因为献血感染艾滋病毒，妻子于1997年夏天死于艾滋病，她是这个村里第一例年夏天死于艾滋病感染的病人。
艾滋孤儿高闯与养母（左）和高耀洁（右）在一起
2004年，她与衡阳消防兵、梁雨润、尾山宏、钟南山、达吾提·阿西木、杨利伟、巴金（舒以代）一同被评为中国中央电视台“感动中国2003年十大年度人物”。
2001年，文楼村的村民告诉来访记者，他们希望提出诉讼，但不知道该把谁推上被告席
宁陵县因分娩输血感染艾滋病毒和丙肝病毒的产妇到北京上访
宁陵县200多名产妇输血感染艾滋病毒，上面不追究责任反而极力袒护，受害者上访就打压，两名上访者被判刑，近10人被刑拘。
河南省有数以百万计的人被艾滋病摧残，但未曾有一名官员为此负责。高耀洁勇于曝光事实，而地方政府则希望掩盖因工作失误、失职以造成的艾滋病蔓延。他们常以维护地方形象或保护国家机密为借口驱逐高耀洁。高的女儿郭炎光，因为高耀洁的“防艾”工作受到地方政府和工作单位的敌视和压制，最终失去工作，母女关系受到严重影响。
高耀洁获得了几个国际社会的奖项后，中国政府才准许她访问美国，2007年3月14日，高耀洁在美国首府华盛顿接受“生命之音”2007年度“全球女性领袖”奖。14日下午，希拉里在她的办公室单独接见了高耀洁。
2016年10月，高耀洁于纽约曼哈顿的公寓
2010年3月，高耀洁被哥伦比亚大学聘为访问学者，住在附近一所公寓里，由护工照顾她的生活，深居简出，继续她的艾滋病事业，短短几年写下7本有关艾滋病疫情的书和一本诗词。“因为我要把真相告诉全世界，”她在回忆录里写道。
高耀洁医生2023年12月10日过世，享年95岁。她的葬礼18日在纽约上州的芬克里夫墓园举办。
The Blood-borne AIDS Tragedy
Author: ZHONG Ran
Executive Editor: LUO Zhifei Proofreader: LI Jie Translator: LIU Fang
In 1992, the Henan Provincial Health Department and the Red Cross Blood Center of Henan reached an agreement to double the province’s blood collection quota in order to exceed state targets. Under the promotion of LI Changchun, then Party Secretary of Henan, and LIU Quanxi, Director of the Health Department, selling blood became a craze. The government even popularized the slogan “Sell plasma to get rich,” while the Suixian TV station broadcast advertisements declaring that “Not selling blood is unpatriotic.” Vast numbers of rural residents joined the practice.。
In 1996, Professor GAO Yaojie encountered her first AIDS patient in Henan’s provincial capital and traced the infection back to contaminated blood supplies. She began investigating the epidemic and financed her own AIDS-prevention campaigns. Her findings were shocking: over 1.4 million people in Henan had participated in the “plasma economy,” and with an average infection rate of 20,000 per county, at least 1.02 million people were estimated to have contracted HIV/AIDS.
In Xizhaoqiao Village, Shangshui County, a husband and wife were both infected through plasma donation. The wife died of AIDS in the summer of 1997, becoming the village’s first recorded victim of the epidemic.
AIDS orphan Gao Chuang with his foster mother (left) and Dr. Gao Yaojie (right)
In 2004, Gao was named one of China Central Television’s “Ten People Who Touched China” for 2003, alongside figures such as firefighter Liang Yurun, Dr. Zhong Nanshan, and astronaut Yang Liwei.
By 2001, villagers in Wenlou told visiting reporters that they wished to file lawsuits but did not know whom to name as defendants.
In Ningling County, over 200 women contracted HIV during childbirth due to contaminated transfusions. Rather than pursuing accountability, local authorities shielded those responsible and suppressed the victims’ petitions; two petitioners were imprisoned, and nearly ten others detained.
Millions across Henan were devastated by AIDS, yet not a single official was held accountable. Dr. Gao courageously exposed the truth, while local governments sought to conceal their negligence. They expelled her under the pretext of “maintaining social stability” or “protecting state secrets.” Her daughter, GUO Yanguang, suffered persecution and lost her job due to Gao’s activism, deeply straining their relationship.
Only after GAO received several international humanitarian awards did Chinese authorities allow her to travel abroad. On March 14, 2007, she was honored in Washington, D.C. with the “Global Women’s Leadership Award.” That same afternoon, Hillary Clinton met her privately at her office.
In October 2016, Gao Yaojie was in her apartment in Manhattan, New York.
In 2010, Columbia University appointed her as a visiting scholar. Living in a modest Manhattan apartment under a caregiver’s watch, she continued writing about AIDS, publishing seven books and a collection of poems in just a few years. “I must tell the truth to the world,” she wrote in her memoir.
Dr. GAO Yaojie passed away on December 10, 2023, at the age of 95. Her funeral was held on December 18 at Ferncliff Cemetery in Upstate New York.
