Another pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu alleges she got HIV through blood transfusion

After the shocking incident in which a pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar district was transfused with blood from an HIV positive donor, another woman has alleged that the same had happened to her at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMC) in Chennai in May. The hospital has said it held an inquiry into the allegation and found no evidence of wrongdoing at its end.

A 30-year-old woman said she had come to KMC for treatment when she was five months pregnant with her second child after tests at a private medical college hospital showed a low haemoglobin count. A test carried out at the private institution - Sri Muthukumaran Medical College Hospital & Research Institute - showed she was HIV negative.

When she had the test run again after she left KMC, she was HIV positive.

The woman and her husband, both vegetable vendors near Mangadu, a Chennai suburb, alleged that the GKMC staff were apathetic to their plight. "We were sure that we got the virus from the hospital, since we had earlier results that show my wife didn't have it… When we questioned the hospital staff, they told us that there was not much that could be done now since she got it. They argued that they were not responsible for her condition. Some of the staff even told us that we won't be able to fight the case in court, since we did not have the money to," he told The News Minute.

They said they were afraid to approach the media or go public with their issue because of the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS.The couple say they had written to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and the Dean of KMC alleging medical negligence.

KMC Dean P Vasanthamani outright rejected the allegation, saying it had been looked into. "As soon we got the complaint, a committee was formed and an inquiry conducted into the matter. The blood that we received was labelled negative, we even tested the donor again and know that he doesn't carry the virus," she told The News Minute. "It could not have come from an infected syringe because we used disposable ones," she added.

The KMC management also alleged that there seemed to be some irregularities with the initial HIV screening test conducted at the private institution. It refused to speculate how the woman may have contracted the virus, but insisted that it did not happen at KMC.