Health authorities in east China's Anhui Province confirmed Wednesday that 16 renal patients have been infected with hepatitis C after receiving dialysis at a local hospital.

Aided by experts sent by the Ministry of Health, health departments in Huoshan County have provided free health checks for 58 dialysis patients in the county hospital.

Preliminary blood tests showed 25 of them infected with hepatitis C.

Zhu Yunwu, deputy head of the hospital, said the hospital's records showed nine of the 25 infected had contracted hepatitis C before receiving dialysis.

"Hepatitis C has a latent period from two weeks to half a year on its virus carriers. There were possibilities that the patients had been the disease carriers before taking dialysis in the hospital," Zhu said.

He said the dialysis patients had serious kidney illnesses and were vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Chu Chenqiang, a patient who first reported his infection in the hospital to the media in November, said he feared his close family might have contracted the disease from him.

"The authorities should provide free health checks for my family," he said.

Zhu Yunwu said the hospital had just expanded the dialysis room by 160 square meters and added four new dialysis machines in order to separate the patients and reduce the infection rate. "Systematic management and better surveillance can cut the infection rate, but it's difficult to guarantee a zero rate of infection in dialysis, when blood passes through the machine to remove toxic substances," he said.

Health authorities are continuing to investigate and test blood, and may disclose more details later Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2009)