The Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) spokeswoman called on more citizens to donate blood on Tuesday as the country continues to experience a nationwide shortage of human albumin.

Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman with the SFDA, revealed that many pharmaceutical producers have stopped production of human albumin, a blood plasma protein, due to a shortage in supply of blood plasma.

According to the SFDA, the total production of human albumin in 2006 was 126.7 tons, however, the production so far this year has been only 47.9 tons and the demand of human albumin in hospitals and drug stores has exceeded the supply.

The spokeswoman denied the possibility of loosening the embargo on imports, despite of the domestic human albumin shortage.

China embargoed the import of blood products in 1986 after the first AIDS patient case was reported in the US in 1981.

China now has 33 blood production centers distributed in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities with a total capacity to process 12,000 tons of material blood.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2007)