China's Henan Bans AIDS Activist Meeting

A Chinese province that was one of the country's first areas hit by AIDS has banned a group of activists from holding a meeting about how to combat the disease, saying it was illegal, an AIDS group said on Wednesday.

In the 1990s, thousands of farmers in Henan were infected with the disease through schemes in which people sold blood to unsanitary, often state-run, clinics.

Henan authorities scrapped the meeting despite the organisers abiding by demands to prevent foreigners, media or even people from outside the province from participating, Meng Lin from China Alliance of People Living with HIV/AIDS, told Reutersread more