Child cancer patient suspected to have contracted HIV during blood transfusion dies
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Alappuzha: The nine-year-old girl from Alappuzha, who allegedly tested HIV positive after undergoing a blood transfusion at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram died at 11.30 am on Wednesday.
The girl suffered from chest congestion for last two-to-three days and had sought treatment at the Medical College Hospital at Vandanam, Alappuzha.
The girl was diagnosed with leukaemia in March 2017 and was admitted to the RCC. In August, the parents were asked to take the child for a blood test at the Medical College Hospital, situated near RCC in Thiruvananthapuram.
The result showed that the girl was HIV positive, much to the shock of the parents who tested negative for the same. After the girl was tested HIV positive, she was undergoing treatment at the Alappuzha hospital for the past 13 months.
The girl's father had alleged that she contracted the dreaded illness after a blood transfusion at the RCC. Her parents had also approached the High Court in September, seeking a probe into the issue.
However, the Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS), who conducted a probe into the incident, has given a clean chit to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) authorities and the report of the KSACS said that the blood given to the girl during transfusion at Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram was tested before the procedure and HIV was not detected.
The report of KSACS also pointed out that RCC was not equipped to detect the virus during the window period - time from infection to a positive result.