By Seekriti Saha
Six thalassaemia-suffering children allegedly tested HIV positive in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel District Hospital. Devendra Patel, in charge of the blood bank of the hospital, told the reporters on Tuesday that the procedural errors have happened due to contamination during blood transfusion and an investigation is going on.
The six children who are at risk are aged between 12 and 15 years and were receiving regular blood transfusions from the blood bank of the hospital, as is done in the case of the genetic blood disorder thalassaemia. The officials said that some of these children had gone through eighty to a hundred transfusions of blood for their health conditions.
One of the family members of these four children said that about four months back, while the child was getting a routine checkup, the child tested HIV positive. He is being treated for HIV, but the medications are not working. On taking the medication for the HIV disease, the child starts feeling ill and starts to vomit.
“It is also being investigated whether the blood transfusion took place in other hospitals also or only in the government hospital,” MP Health Minister Rajendra Shukla said to the reporters.
MP Congress state president Jitu Patwari said, “Health minister should resign, as government hospitals’ mismanagement is claiming the lives of children. First in Indore, two children died due to rat bites; 24 children died in Chhindwara; a newborn died in Rewa on Monday; and now these four children are infected. This is a shameful incident for the entire MP.”
Earlier in Madhya Pradesh twenty children had died and five children were in critical condition after they consumed the toxic Coldrif cough syrup. The victims mostly were from Chhindwara; two were from Betul and one from Padhurna.
Two infants died in Indore’s Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital after they were bitten by rats in the Prenatal ICU of the hospital. Congress MLA and former minister Sachin Yadav said that such incidents were continuously occurring in Madhya Pradesh.