West Bengal : Compensation Demanded For Bengal's Blood Scam Victims

November 5, 2006

Compensation Demanded For Bengal's Blood Scam Victims

India's largest patients' rights body led by US-based AIDS

researcher Kunal Saha has demanded compensation for the hundreds of

thousands of people in West Bengal who are feared to have received

HIV contaminated blood as a result of faulty blood-test kits

purchased by the state government.

The kits were supplied by Secunderabad-based company Monozyme India,

which had clinched a contract in December 2004 after the West Bengal

State AIDS Control and Prevention Society floated tenders. Countless

people in Bengal are feared to have received HIV and Hepatitis

contaminated blood.

" We demand adequate compensation for all victims of this 'kit'

scandal. Unless you take immediate action for equitable justice for

the victims, we will have no other option but to move the court

seeking justice for this heinous crime, " Saha told IANS over phone

from Ohio Sunday.

His organisation People for Better Treatment (PBT) has shot off a

letter to state health minister Suryakanta Misra drawing attention

to the crisis in West Bengal's healthcare as a result of transfusion

of contaminated blood products due to use of 'substandard kits' from

Monozyme India.

" The hapless patients are paying the ultimate price for the failure

of the inept members in the health department who were responsible

for monitoring the 'kits' that were approved for testing the blood

samples.

" We are shocked to notice that in order to shield the unscrupulous

healthcare workers and to protect Monozyme India, a rumour is being

spread in the media that the 'kits' were merely out of their expiry

dates.

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