KOLKATA: Thalassaemic child gets HIV through blood transfusion

October 6, 2006

KOLKATA: At nine months, she was detected with thalassaemia. At two

years, she tested positive for HIV. And her parents believe it was

the 'drop of life' that gave her the virus.

The thalassaemic girl needs weekly blood transfusions to stay alive.

Her parents suspect it was one such blood unit, taken from the

Central Blood Bank that infected her with HIV.

" We got blood only from the Central Blood Bank. We couldn't afford

anything else, " said her father Shankha Nath Sardar, who makes just

Rs 1,800 a month.

" I struggle to even get the Rs 50 for a bottle of blood. My daughter

needs at least three bottles a week, " he said. For Shankha, if there

was anything worse than learning his daughter had HIV, it was being

accused of giving her the killer virus.

" When we told the blood bank, they told me that since I am a taxi

driver, I infected my daughter. They refused to give me blood till I

and my wife underwent tests. We did so in July, 2005, and both of us

are HIV-negative, " he said.

Their ordeal started in early-2002, when the child was barely nine

months old. She had high fever which wouldn't go down. The local

doctor gave up.

Her parents, Shankha and Kanak, rushed her to BC Roy Children's

Hospital. She was diagnosed to be suffering from thalassaemia and

doctors asked Shankha to get a unit of blood immediately.

The weekly transfusions continued. But the child started developing

other symptoms and her health started failing. When she recovered

somewhat, she was referred to NRS Hospital where she was treated

under Moloy Ghosh.

The child, her father said, was the youngest of all patients in the

hospital's day-care section. Early 2003, the doctor treating her

suspected something worse and asked the parents to get her tested

for AIDS.

The test, in May 2005, confirmed she was HIV-positive. A second test

carried out at the School of Tropical Medicine corroborated the

report. On May 26, 2005 Shankha and Kanak were told that their only

daughter had HIV.

When the shocked couple tried to trace the route of the infection,

it led back to the blood bank.

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