23 children test HIV positive in Gujarat

Parents point fingers at blood transfusion in Junagadh hospital

The shocking incident came to light a few days back when the blood reports of the children in the age group of 5 to 10 years revealed that they were HIV positive.

Agitated parents alleged that the children had contracted the virus at Civil Hospital during blood transfusion.

The children from various towns of the district suffering from thalassemia visit the hospital twice a week for free blood transfusion.

The authorities at the Civil Hospital and the state health authorities, however, went into a denial mode.

“Primary investigations have revealed that 23 children have tested positive. We are trying to investigate as to how they contracted the virus since these children have been transfusing blood even at private health centres. We transfuse blood as per NACO guidelines,” superintendent of the Junagadh Civil Hospital Dr G T Dayalu said.

Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas even claimed that the children may have contracted the virus at some other place.

“When they arrived at the hospital, pre-transfusion blood test was carried out and the report showed that they were positive. So they may have got affected somewhere else since there are multiple sources of transfusion,” said Vyas. A claim which parents find hard to accept.

They alleged that the children have been taking transfusion at the hospital since long and would have contracted the virus there. The government has said that it is still inquiring into the incident.  

But the owner of a private blood bank in Vadodara, Dr Vijay Shah, said the enquiry will reveal the actual reason but there are possibilities of infected blood being transmitted as there were no legalised blood banks in Junagadh a few years ago.

“Now that blood banks have come up, it remains to be seen whether all the steps were being taken as per medical norms before transferring the blood for use at hospitals,” said Dr