Times of India: Guwahati: Saturday,
June 15, 2013.
At least five
persons, including a woman, in Assam's Darrang district tested HIV positive
after they were transfused with blood donated by an HIV+ donor in a government
hospital at different times in the last two years. The donor reportedly did not
know until a month ago that he was HIV positive and that he had infected others
as well.
After the
matter came to light, J Saharia, the in-charge of the blood bank at Mangaldai
Civil Hospital, where the blood transfusion was done, said the man donated
blood twice - in September 2012 and January 2013 - and both times tested
negative for HIV. He also said that only two recipients, not five as reported,
and the donor tested positive for HIV in recent tests.
However,
anti-HIV activist and an employee of the State AIDS Control Society, Jahnavi
Goswami, who came to know of the incident about 10 days ago, said that five
persons in all have been infected due to blood transfusions from this donor and
there could be more.
"The
woman, who is about 20 years old and the mother of a child, was given blood for
pregnancy complications about 18 months ago at Mangaldai Civil Hospital. About
six months later she had her blood tested for a skin problem, which is when she
was found to be HIV+. She filed an RTI and found out the name of the donor.
After this, we tried to get the names of all recipients of the donor. Apart
from this woman, I have met another victim and have talked to three other
victims on phone," she said.
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