In a shocking incident, a 24-year-old pregnant woman contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after blood transfusion at Sattur in this southern district of Tamil Nadu.

The contaminated blood was obtained from the blood bank in a government hospital and the incident came to light on December 25. This was the first case of HIV being transmitted through blood transfusion in South Tamil Nadu in what it was termed as gross medical negligence by the government hospital, violating the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) guidelines and those of blood transfusion norms.

The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, got pregnant a second time and was diagnosed with anaemia in a private hospital at Sattur, where she had undergone medical checkup. She was advised to undergo blood transfusion to treat anaemia by the doctors.

Her family members got one unit of blood from the Government Hospital at Sivakasi two weeks ago and the woman had subsequently undergone blood transfusion in the private hospital. Prior to the blood transfusion, the women underwent a couple of blood tests along with an HIV test, on the advice of the treating gynaecologist. The blood test report showed her to be HIV-negative.

As the health condition of the pregnant woman worsened after the blood transfusion, she was again admitted to the private hospital two days ago. A blood test taken in the hospital shows the woman was infected with HIV. Preliminary investigations by the health officials revealed that the blood bank in the government hospital obtained blood from a donor, who is suspected to be HIV-positive on November 30.

The woman is now eight months pregnant. Her family members accused the hospital authorities of lethargic attitude and attempting to tamper the medical records to cover up evidence of negligence by causing a patient to get HIV infection via blood transfusion.

Meanwhile, Dr.R.Manoharan, the Joint Director of Medical Services, Virudhunagar conducted a thorough inquiry with the blood bank authorities at Sivakasi Government Hospital about the incident on Tuesday. Based on preliminary investigation, three employees of the hospital were placed under suspension. Further investigations were on to find out whether the contaminated blood was supplied to any other patients.