Bhubaneswar: HIV+ man gave blood 9 times

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HIV+ man gave blood 9 times

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo, Bhubaneswar

June 5: An HIV-positive man, taking advantage of the negligence of blood bank

officials in the Bolangir district headquarters hospital, has donated blood at

least nine times. It is apprehended that many of the beneficiaries, who received

infected blood, might have already contracted the disease.

This fact came to light after the accused, Sambhu Sahoo, who was recently

arrested in connection with his wife Deepanjali's murder, confessed during

interrogation that he had donated blood at least nine times since 2004.

What is surprising that although Sambhu had obtained a HIV-positive certificate

from the same district headquarters hospital, the blood bank authorities never

suspected him nor did they reportedly conduct any test before blood extraction.

" The accused has confessed to having donated blood at least nine times. We are

investigating if Sambhu's blood has been given to any patient, " district

superintendent of police S. Saini said on Thursday. District collector S. Santha

Gopalan said stringent action would be taken against the blood bank authorities

whose negligence helped Sambhu donate blood.

On May 25, Sambhu, a resident of Tusra village, was taken into custody for

allegedly strangulating his wife to death. The HIV-infected man had then told

the police that he killed his wife fearing she would be ostracised after his

death.

Sambhu confessed before the police that he took his wife Deepanjali to the

forest, gave her sleeping pills, strangled her and then slit her wrist. He then

tried to kill himself but could not gather enough courage. Sambhu had reportedly

wanted to keep his HIV status private. He had applied for the Orissa

government's Rs 200-per-month Madhusudan pension for HIV patients but the

officials slipped up and disclosed his name. " We have now issued a circular to

all the concerned authorities not to publicly declare the name of HIV-positive

patients for the sake of the pension, " chief district medical officer Anant

Charan Naik said.

Source: Lokmat Times, Nagpur 6, 2008

F. Borges

National Focal Point 2008 (India), Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS

Program Manager, HIV/AIDS

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)

140, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Nagpur, 440001, Maharashtra, India

Email: peter.borges@...; petervision2025@... | Website:

www.ymcanagpur.org

Phone: +91-712-2524 834, 2548 789, 2540 024; Telefax: +91-712-2548 789; Cell:

+91-9923414559; Skype: peterfloriano