Medical team visits Sivakasi GH to probe into HIV blood

Days after a pregnant woman contracted HIV after allegedly being transfused contaminated blood supplied by a blood bank here, a five-member medical team from Chennai visited the Sivakasi government hospital Friday for conducting a probe into the medical negligence.

The team headed by Dr Madhavi inspected the blood bank, which supplied the HIV-tainted blood to the Sattur Government Hospital, where the 24-year-old woman had undergone blood transfusion.

It held enquiry with the doctors, nurses andblood bank employees.

The shocking incident had prompted the Tamil Nadu government to order examination of stocks in the state's blood banks.

An FIR has been registered against doctors and nurses involved in the transfusion of blood besides blood bank workers for medical negligence under relevant IPC sections.

The woman, who was eight months pregnant with her second child, had gone for a check-up at a private clinic in Sattur in Virudhunagar district, where doctors had advised her to have a blood transfusion citing haemoglobin deficiency.

Subsequently, she underwent blood transfusion at the Sattur government hospital (GH) and the blood was brought from Sivakasi.

It later emerged that the donor was HIV positive, officials had said, adding the recipient's blood was also tested, which confirmed that she too had got infected by the virus.

Police had said that the 19-year-old donor, on coming to know about the incident, allegedly attempted to commit suicide by consuming poison.

He has been admitted to a hospital.