This month, a minor Assamese boy got infected with the deadly virus after he received a blood transfusion at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Gujarat follows with 292 and Maharashtra with 276 cases.
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In response to a Right to Information query by activist Chetan Kothari, the data was revealed by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) as reported. “Therefore, the data can not be considered 100% accurate”, a senior official at NACO said.
Blood transfusion accounts for less than 1 per cent of total HIV infection and there is no increasing trend in HIV transmission through blood, as reflected in the ICTC data. “I believe the real numbers would be double or triple that”, Mr Kothari told the BBC.
It noted that all blood banks had to mandatorily test all collected blood units for five transfusion-transmitted infections – HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis and Malaria. Cases like these will continue to occur as long as the government doesn’t intervene with strict regulations over hospitals and blood banks, they argue. However, the government maintained it is also working towards stringent blood safety screening and to introduce technologies to ensure zero transmission. The author says that now in India, most of the blood banks including his, do not have the facility to perform confirmatory tests for transfusion transmitted infections (TTI).
“This is a very serious matter and must be addressed urgently”, he added.
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According to NACO’s latest annual report, India had more than 2.1 million people infected with HIV in 2015, of whom 40.5 percent were females and 6.54 percent were under the age of 15. “And this is where the source of the problem is”, said Naresh Goyal, deputy director general, NACO. “In such cases, when screened, the blood sample shows a false negative”, said Goyal, according to The Hindu.
