The real numbers could be double or triple that
At least 2,234 Indians have contracted HIV while receiving blood transfusions in hospitals in the past 17 months alone, say officials.
The information was revealed by the country’s National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) in response to a petition filed by information activist Chetan Kothari.
God damn. That’s appalling.
The highest number of patients who had been infected with HIV as a result of contaminated blood in hospitals, were from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with 361 cases, Mr Kothari’s RTI (Right to Information) query revealed.
The western states of Gujarat with 292 cases and Maharashtra with 276 cases rank second and third respectively.
The Indian capital Delhi is at number four with 264 cases.
“This is the official data, provided by the government-run Naco. I believe the real numbers would be double or triple that,” Mr Kothari told the BBC.
Under law, it is mandatory for hospitals to screen donors and the donated blood for HIV, hepatitis B and C, malaria and other infections.
“But each such test costs 1,200 rupees ($18; £12) and most hospitals in India do not have the testing facilities. Even in a big city like Mumbai, only three private hospitals have HIV testing facilities. Even the largest government hospitals do not have the technology to screen blood for HIV,” Mr Kothari said.
Ohhhhhhhhhh god – they don’t screen the blood.
I have no words.
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Me neither.
India also exports medical supplies.
I nursed people who died from HIV after receiving infected Factor VIII in the early eighties. (For haemophilia). They outnumbered the cases I saw of sexually/drug use transmitted HIV by several to one.
Testing blood is vital – the UK learned that empirically by 1985. But, yes, testing in large quantities is expensive. I have no idea how India’s health system works or how hospitals are funded but I have a great deal of sympathy for the staff facing that kind of dilemma. Let someone die for lack of blood or transfuse them with something that may give them a terminal illness.
My question is: what is the Indian government doing? India has a fucking space program and while I’m right there for space research it does seem to be a case of poor priorities… of course, India receives a fair bit of aid from the West. It would be nice if we could gently suggest a bit of it goes to healthcare. Like providing hospitals (or regional transfusion centres) with equipment and funding to ensure blood is clean.
Having said that, the UK still won’t accept blood for transfusion from gay men who are sexually active which is, frankly, ridiculous…
@RJW #2
India does export medical equipment and supplies but that doesn’t include blood and, while there is a global market in transfusable blood and blood products I can’t find any suggestion that India exports blood – I doubt that there’s single country that would accept it given the lack of testing. There are very stringent protocols in Europe and the US and the more developed African countries that would preclude importing this blood. Plus, blood is expensive stuff. The less developed countries simply won’t be able to afford to import blood and are very unlikely to have the health care infrastructure in place that would lead them to do so.
People contracting HIV from infected blood in Indian hospitals is completely irrelevant to the safety or otherwise of India’s exported medical supplies – filters, shields, etc etc. The two subjects do not overlap in any way.
Steamshovelmama @4
“People contracting HIV from infected blood in Indian hospitals is completely irrelevant to the safety or otherwise of India’s exported medical supplies – filters, shields, etc etc. The two subjects do not overlap in any way.”
Of course they overlap. This appalling blood contamination scandal is indicative of the medical standards prevailing in India. I wouldn’t need to run an audit of the country’s medical system to arrive at that conclusion.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/bandages-exports-of-jayer-and-company-suspended/1/402500.html
The Indian company actually assumed they could export to developed countries and no-one would notice.
Yes, the country does have a space program and nuclear weapons and a caste system and about half the population craps in the open.