RCC washes hands of 9 year-old girl contracting HIV through blood transfusion

An internal probe report by Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has found that the hospital authorities have not committed any lapse in the recent case where a nine-year-old cancer patient was detected HIV positive during treatment at the Cancer Centre. The report states that the girl might have contracted the disease during blood transfusion carried out during chemotherapy.

The report further states that blood given to the patient might be the one donated by a person during the window period, the time during which the infection will not be detected by a blood test. RCC does not have the advance facility to identify the infection in the blood collected during the window period. 

The kid was given 49 units of blood in between chemotherapy, and none of those was detected HIV positive. However, it won't be possible to identify the infection if the blood was taken during the window period. This might have led to the infection in the child, and RCC cannot be made accountable for this as it was an accident, the report states. 

A 9-year-old girl suffering from blood cancer was tested positive for HIV allegedly after getting a transfusion of infected blood. The girl was being treated at the Alappuzha Medical College and Hospital from where she was referred to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

Noticing swelling in one of her eyes, the doctors there carried out various tests, including a blood test, which revealed she was HIV positive. 

The girl's father filed a police complaint stating that the girl contracted the dreaded disease after a blood transfusion, but the police said they were still investigating how she got infected.

Meanwhile, Health Minister KK Shylaja has sought an immediate report from the RCC Director on the matter.

• RCC
• HIV