Note: Some other sources with news on the same incident are:
1. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kerala-8yearold-girl-tests-hiv-positive-after-blood-transfusion/381606-62.html
1. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kerala-8yearold-girl-tests-hiv-positive-after-blood-transfusion/381606-62.html
Today's Paper » NATIONAL
Published: March 28, 2013 00:00 IST | Updated: March 28, 2013 05:18 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/8yearold-contracts-hiv-from-blood-transfusion/article4556833.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/8yearold-contracts-hiv-from-blood-transfusion/article4556833.ece
8-year-old contracts HIV from blood transfusion
Special Correspondent
In what could be a possible case of transfusion-transmitted infection, an eight-year-old girl in Wayanad, a Thalassemia patient, has been found to be infected with HIV virus. Her parents and her younger sibling are HIV negative.
Senior officials of the Health department and Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS) said that a detailed investigation would be necessary to ascertain how the girl got the HIV infection and at what point in time because she has been receiving blood transfusions since she was two-and-a-half years old. (because of her inherited blood disorder).
Joint probe
The Director of Health Services said that the government would be ordering a joint investigation by Health department and KSACS into the incident.
The girl has been receiving blood transfusions from the age of two-and-a-half years and till she turned five years old, the transfusions were being given from the Mananthavadi district hospital. Since the past three years, she has been seeking treatment at Kozhikode Medical College hospital, from where she has been receiving blood transfusions also.
It was in July 2012 that she was registered as an HIV patient at the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) clinic at Kozhikode MCH. In December last, she also got registered at the Drop-in-Centre of KSACS at Wayanad.
Blood safety officials said that even while observing all mandatory safety precautions before accepting blood from a blood donor and then transfusing it, there was always the risk that the donor had donated his blood during the window period.
Window period
The window period is the time window after getting an infection, when the donor is infectious but sufficient number of antibodies have not been developed in the blood for laboratory tests to detect it.
"This (the possibility of getting infected through blood donated during the window period) is a universally accepted risk, anywhere in the world. All test kits which are currently in use in our settings detect the antibodies and has a window period of 45 days to three months. There are major institutions like the Regional Cancer Centre or the Sree Chitra Institute which uses more sensitive test kits which test for both antibodies and viral antigen, in which case the window period can be brought down to 15 days. The risk can be reduced, but cannot be done away with," a Transfusion Medicine specialist said.
"For detecting the viral antigen too, it takes at least three days before a virus multiplies and there is even a possibility of detecting it. We individually counsel blood donors when they come to donate blood about all these risks but the donors need not always be truthful," a blood safety official pointed out.
Blood transfusions are always better avoided unless the benefits outweigh the risks but in the case of the Wayanad girl, her condition necessitated regular transfusions.
Thalassemia
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder which causes the destruction of the protein, haemoglobin, in the red blood cells, resulting in severe anaemia. The condition could lead to severe growth deformities. The treatment involves regular blood transfusions and supplementation of folates.
Of all the common transfusion-transmitted viruses -- HIV, Hep B and C – the HIV virus has the least risk of being transmitted through a needle-prick (0.03 %). Yet, if at all a person gets transfused with HIV-infected blood, the chances of him developing HIV infection is one hundred per cent.
"This is a very unfortunate incident. But it is not very easy to find out when or where the child got HIV infection as she has been receiving transfusions regularly," a senior official said . A similar case of suspected transfusion-transmitted HIV infection had been reported in Kerala a few years ago, when a two-year-old girl, Reshmi, has acquired the infection while under medical treatment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from the KeralaAIDS Yahoo Group
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Send Messages to KeralaAIDS@yahoogroups.com
To Subscribe : Send an email to KeralaAIDS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To Subscribe online : Visit http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/KeralaAIDS/join
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from the KeralaAIDS Yahoo Group
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Send Messages to KeralaAIDS@yahoogroups.com
To Subscribe : Send an email to KeralaAIDS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To Subscribe online : Visit http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/KeralaAIDS/join
---------------------------------------------------------------------
__,_._,___
