http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...87,curpg-1.cms
Transfusion leaves doctor HIV+ at 74
AHMEDABAD: Dr Hansa Desai, 74, can hardly see. This frail dental surgeon has fractured both her hip bones and is being fed through tubes. As if her suffering was not enough, she now has an HIV infection, got allegedly through a blood transfusion done recently.
"She is suffering acute HIV encephalopathy which takes away major part of the brain and causes a host of other related problems. The HIV infection is progressing very rapidly as her immunity down because of old age," said infectious diseases specialist at the Apollo Hospital Dr Moti Talpada.
"My mother does not deserve this. Our family was shocked when her reports showed HIV positive. I know the blood banks can easily say that the donor may have been in the window period and the infection could not be detected. But I want people to know that this horror can visit them too,"says her son Ajay. Dr Hansa, who belongs to an illustrious family of industrialists, underwent a surgery to fix her hip bone at a Vadodara hospital two years back. Eight months ago, she broke her second hip bone for which she underwent another surgery.
Blood was sourced from a leading blood bank in Vadodara. "Her blood tests carried out before both the surgeries showed HIV negative. But after the second surgery, her condition worsened as she contracted infections. This prompted another blood test over a month ago which showed HIV positive,"says orthopaedic surgeon Dr Harshavardan Hegde,who operated on her in the Vadodara hospital.
What’s equally shocking is that the victim was virtually eased out of the Vadodara hospital after the report showed she was HIV positive. "We were not told to leave in as many words but we were repeatedly told that it would be better if we take our mother to the government hospital or to an Aids specialist,"said Ajay, who then shifted her to Apollo here.
"It is a fact that no blood can be guaranteed to be 100 per cent HIV-free as one has to consider the window period where the donor may not show HIV infection for six weeks to six months after contracting the same. In Gujarat, at least 2-3 per cent of HIV infections spread through blood transfusion, which was 10-12 per cent earlier,"said Dr DM Saxena of the Gujarat State AIDS Control Society.
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