THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of a girl contracting HIV infection allegedly through blood transfusion at the Regional Cancer Centre here, a similar case in which a boy is suspected to have received infected blood at the Centre has also come to light. The 15 year old boy has been undergoing treatment for leukaemia at the RCC for the past one year. However, at present he is not admitted to the hospital.
RCC sources said that the boy was expected to come for treatment later this week. During his next visit a confirmatory test for HIV would be carried out on him at the Centre. The boy was reportedly bitten by dog recently following which he had taken anti rabies vaccine. RCC doctors said since anti rabies vaccine increased antibodies, there was a possibility of getting a false positive result for HIV. “It is under these circumstances that we have decided to get a confirmatory test done at the earliest,” said a doctor.
The RCC authorities have also initiated a separate inquiry into the second case. The committee headed by medical superintendent which looked into the previous case, would be probing this one as well. As part of the inquiry, the experts will examine whether safety protocol were complied while receiving blood from donors. Moreover, the donors who had donated blood during that period and the donors whose blood was transfused for the boy would also be traced and examined.
