Hyderabad police have registered an FIR (first information report) against a blood bank for its alleged negligence resulting in a three-year-old thalassemia patient testing positive for HIV.
The boy's parents lodged a complaint with the Nallakunta police station, alleging that the blood bank transferred HIV-infected blood to him.
The child from Rampally village in Ranga Reddy district had been undergoing blood transfusions for the past 2.5 years at the Red Cross blood bank located in Adikmet, according to the police.
He tested HIV positive when the treating doctor suggested a blood test following a recent blood transfusion on July 20.
The child's parents sought a detailed inquiry into the blood bank's alleged negligence.
Sub-Inspector B Shiva Shankar, who is the Investigating Officer in the case, told TNM that while the complainants have said they have only been visiting the blood bank in Adikmet, the blood bank has claimed that there’s a chance of the child having undergone blood transfusions elsewhere too, as they had been absent for a while between regular visits.
The child had been undergoing blood transfusions once in two to four weeks, starting from the age of seven months, the SI said.
He added that the blood bank claimed that they had been conducting HIV tests on the recipient once in two months, and this is the first time HIV was detected.
“The FIR was just registered yesterday. Once the investigation begins, we will seek suggestions from the Medical Board. The blood bank said they have details of the donors and said they would call them in and conduct tests on them to confirm the source of infection,” the SI said.
IANS reported that the police have written to the Medical Board seeking its opinion and asked the blood bank management to submit the patient's records.
Around five years ago, in 2017, a nine-year-old girl in Kerala undergoing treatment for cancer was also diagnosed with HIV, with her parents alleging that she had contracted the virus through a blood transfusion while undergoing treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
The girl passed away a year later at the Alappuzha Medical College hospital.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
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