Boy injected with HIV+ blood: Parents blame Muzaffarnagar blood bank

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8-Yr-old boy tests HIV+ from tainted Blood

by V Bharadwaj, Mujaffarnagar, January 15

Hindustan Times, Lucknow Edition, Dated 16th January 2005

An eight-year-old boy has tested HIV+ after he was injected with infected

blood allegedly by the local blood bank.

According to the police, a woman had given birth to male twins on August 15,

1996. As the delivery was premature, her husband kept both babies for

observation at the clinic of a well-known child specialist.

In 1998, one of the twins, who contracted pneumonia, was given two units of

blood on the advice of his doctor and this was taken from an authorized

blood bank in the city.

In July last year, the boy again fell ill and he was again given blood from

the same blood bank. But when the child's condition deteriorated, the doctor

asked the boy's father to take him to Chandigarh for further treatment under

child specialist Dr. Surjeet Singh Chaddha.

On December 7, last year the boy was taken to Chandigarh and on December 11,

after proper testing and diagnosis Dr Chadda confirmed that the boy has

contracted HIV, probably due to tainted blood given to him some time in the

past eight years. On Saturday, the boy's father met SSP Dawa Sherpa to

pursue legal action against the blood bank and the child specialist.

The SSP ordered the lodging of FIR against two doctors. The SO civil lines will

investigate the matter.

The boy's father told HT that his son was given infected blood by the blood

bank, but they denied the allegation. The doctor there said it is only after

proper testing that blood is kept for sale to the public.

A city doctor told HT that it takes for a week to 3 months to diagnose HIV

but for the symptoms to show it takes at least a year or more.

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Q. Can we do something jointly to stop this mode oftransmission any further?

Sanjeev Jain

E-mail: <sparshaids@...>