The 30-year-old mother of two from Chennai told the Tamil TV channel News 7 that she was five months pregnant then and faced a blood transfusion and 10 injections at the hospital. She went to the hospital after recommendations and found out that she was very anaemic.
While the hospital confirms the woman’s hospitalisation in April, they deny that she was HIV positive at the time. However, three months later, a blood test showed that she was HIV positive. The child, upon doing a blood test, has been found that he does not have HIV positive blood.
Early this week, what shocked the people of Tamil Nadu was the case of a 23-year-old pregnant woman contracting AIDS after she underwent a blood transfusion containing HIV positive blood. She underwent the transfusion when she was in the hospital being treated for Anaemia in a government hospital in TN’s Sattur.
The man who donated blood had no idea that he was HIV positive until it was too late, following which he informed the lab technicians at the hospital. The 19-year-old man had reportedly attempted suicide on Wednesday after learning that he was HIV positive and that a woman even received his donated blood.
The discovery of the HIV blood came to light when the man, who had donated blood in November, contacted the blood bank to inform them that he was HIV positive. According to reports, he had tested his blood in another laboratory for a routine Visa process wherein he learnt that he was HIV positive. He had immediately approached the blood bank who alerted the officials of the Health Department. The officials then traced his blood unit and found it to be transfused to a pregnant woman.
The woman, pregnant with her second child, is said to be shattered upon this news and her health had visibly gotten worse since the transfusion. She and her husband are scared of all the stigma associated with AIDS and how it will affect them as a family.
Thus far, Principal Secretary (Health) Dr J Radhakrishnan has said that the woman will receive exclusive treatment in Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital, with three doctors assigned to her to specially oversee the assessment and treatment.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is spread primarily by unprotected sex, contaminated blood transfusions, hypodermic needles, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. The fear surrounding HIV and the stigma that comes with it continues despite times changing. In the past, several HIV positive people have lost their jobs or been asked to vacate their houses owing to this stigma.
