The recent death of a young girl in western China made the news for a somewhat unusual reason. Before she died of congenital heart disease 20 year old Wu Yahong signed a contract under which she donated her body to Lanzhou University for medical research.

Wu's action generated a lot of reaction both online and in the press – and in fact many people sent money to her poverty stricken family. But it also raised the issue of body donation for research or organ use – a topic not often discussed in China where, for cultural reasons, body donation is rare.

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Across China this summer, cities are witnessing record breaking hot temperatures. This heat wave is particularly bad news for the thousands across the country who require blood transfusions each day. BON’s Kelda Yuen has more on the desperation faced by China’s blood centers to meet the demand for blood during these peak days of summer.

An openly gay blood donor is suing a Beijing Red Cross Center after it turned down his offer to donate blood. The man, who works in publishing and uses the pen name Wang Zizheng, said he was gay in a health questionnaire filled out when he went to donate blood last month. He was then told he could not be a donor.

Since a hospital in central China this week confirmed that more than 80 people has been infected with HIV/AIDS from contaminated blood it used in the mid-1990s, fears over the safety of blood transfusions have been reignited.

In the most Hubei case the victims were all infected after getting blood at one hospital in the province of between 1996 and 1997. Some unknowingly passed the virus on to their spouses or children, bringing the total number infected to above 100.

The contaminated blood came from poor rural farmers donated blood for money in Henan province. While the infections over 12 years ago the truth has only come to light now. So just how safe do people in China today feel about blood transfusions. Well, we went out and asked just that - in today's Straight from the Street.