20 thalassemic kids test HIV +ve

Twenty thalassemic children from Junagadh have tested HIV positive in the last one year, thanks to the transfusion of infected blood. They are among 100 thalassemic children from Junagadh district who have been coming to the civil hospital there for blood transfusion regularly. The patients arrange for the blood and the hospital merely does the transfusion.

Thalassemia is a blood disorder passed down through families (inherited) in which the body makes an abnormal form of haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. The disorder results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anaemia. Hence, thalassemics need regular blood transfusions to stay alive. There about more than 4,500 thalassemic children in the state.

"For the last one year, we have been conducting various medical tests on children who visit our centre for blood transfusion and 20 of them have turned out to be HIV positive,” said paediatrician Nilesh Baraiya.

Doctors at Junagadh civil hospital say that relatives of thalassemic patients bring blood from blood banks and the transfusion is done at the hospital. "Blood banks screen for HIV but many times, if the blood donor is in the ‘window period’, it is difficult to detect the HIV virus and the risk remains,” said a doctor.

However, the state does not have Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) for screening of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV 1), Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) virus in donated blood, said Chaitanya Vora of Indian Red-Cross Society, Ahmedabad. "Now, we have to take care of other thalassemic children who are not infected,” he added.