Another woman alleges she tested HIV+ after blood transfusion in Tamil Nadu hospital

After a 23-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district tested HIV positive after blood transfusion, another woman has come out with a similar allegation. The woman said she received HIV-infected blood at a government hospital in Chennai in April during her pregnancy and contracted the infection soon after.

Doctors at Kilpauk Government Medical College who treated her, however, have denied the charge.

According to the woman hailing from Mangadu, a suburb of Chennai, she had been given blood in April and had tested HIV positive four months later, in August.

“Since I became pregnant for the second time in January last, I regularly did check-ups at a Primary Health Center (PHC) at Mangadu. As the physicians found me anaemic, I was advised to take the blood transfusion. Therefore, I went to KMC hospital in April last and the doctors transfused blood. However, when I underwent a test again in August, the KMC doctors said that the results showed that I am HIV positive,” the woman told the media.

The woman also said that she had complained to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya Bhaskar and Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and.

“Both the minister and secretary have asked the KMC dean to conduct an enquiry. However, the dean closed the matter saying that they had not transfused HIV positive blood to me,” she noted.

“But I had tested HIV negative earlier,” she claimed.

Also Read: Pregnant woman tests HIV+ from tainted blood, donor attempts suicide

“During my first pregnancy, I was tested HIV negative. Even my husband too had tested with HIV negative. Also, I was not HIV positive till the KMC doctors transfused the blood,” she added.

Fortunately, she said, her baby who was born in last September, it tested HIV negative.

“It is god’s grace that my child was not affected. However, due to the negligence of the hospital staff, I have lost my normal life. Since they are not accepting their mistake, my family members are keeping away from me. Since the Sattur incident has come to the limelight, I have revealed my own plight now,” she told HT.

Also Read: Pregnant woman, 24, given blood at govt hospital in Tamil Nadu; donor was HIV positive

When contacted, Dr P Vasanthamani, Dean, KMC hospital, asserted that the woman was not transfused with HIV-infected blood.

“When the woman raised her concerns, we examined our blood bank records. During the examination, we found that the blood transfused to her had tested HIV negative. We also have the documentary proof for that,” she maintained.

Earlier, a 24-year-old pregnant woman at Sattur in Virudhunagar district contracted HIV allegedly after being transfused contaminated blood supplied by a blood bank which failed to conduct proper screening for the virus, prompting the Tamil Nadu government to order examination of stocks in the state’s blood banks.