Tamil Nadu: 3-year-old tests positive for HIV after blood transfusion at govt hospital

A three-year-old girl has tested positive for HIV nearly seven months after receiving a blood transfusion at a government hospital in Coimbatore, one of Tamil Nadu's largest cities.

Medical tests showed that neither the girl's parents nor her twin had the virus, which causes AIDS.

The hospital's dean has denied the charges, claiming that records were double-checked and that nothing wrong was found.

The girl's father, however, said the transfusion was stopped midway, and that doctors said the blood had been collected from an old man and incorrectly given to his child.

"They then discharged her. Later, we noticed lumps on her body and we took her back to the Coimbatore GH. When the tests returned our child was HIV positive," he said.

There have been two other allegations of government hospital patients turning HIV positive, and no enquiries have been launched by the state health department.

SKIN LESIONS LED TO DETECTION OF H.I.V.

The girl who tested positive for HIV this month is two years and 11 months old, and was born to a couple from Trichy, a city in central Tamil Nadu.

She was underweight at birth, weighing only 700 gms, and initially received treatment at a public hospital in Trichy. Later, when her family moved to Thiruppur, they were informed by a district government hospital that she had heart issues and needed advanced treatment.

The Thiruppur facility recommended the government hospital in Coimbatore, where blood components were transfused into the girl's body as part of a procedure on July 11, 2018.

She was admitted again on February 8 when skin lesions began to appear all over her body. When her blood was tested, she was found to be HIV positive.

According to a report by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), an estimated 21.17 lakh people had HIV infections in 2015.