Hyderabad: Police said they found no evidence of negligence at the the Indian Red Cross Society’s Vidyanagar branch, after three-year-old boy suffering from thalassemia had contracted HIV after receiving blood from there. The child is continuing to get blood from the same centre.
The boy, of Keesara on the city outskirts, has been undergoing blood transfusions at the same location since he was seven months old. Records indicate that blood from 53 people was used in transfusions for the boy.
He reported positive during a routine test in July, but the records of the 53 donors showed them to be negative for HIV.
“According to experts, even if they are infected, sometimes, the infection shows up after a long time and even the person may not also be aware of the infection. Due to the privacy aspect, they cannot be questioned either. The only option is to go by the records submitted by the IRCS,” a police official said.
The boy’s parents maintained that they did not go to any other institute for blood transfusion.
“When we did not go to any other hospital, how could my son get an infection from other places? We just hope we get justice and our son gets back his health,” the boy’s father told Deccan Chronicle, adding that the last blood transfusion took place on Friday.
Dr Kaipa Pitchi Reddy, director, IRCS, Hyderabad, said that the child getting infected was the rarest of the rare incident. Claiming that the child could not have gotten infected at their institute, he said that even after the incident, the child is undergoing transfusion at their institute and they are providing necessary support.
“The Governor (state president of IRCS) is also monitoring the child’s condition. She has directed us to provide all kinds of support to the child,” he said.
