The enquiry committee, set up by the Central government to look into the issue of children contracting HIV during blood transfusion from the Junagarh civil hospital, completed their investigation on October 14. They are expected to submit the report to the central and the state government soon.
The investigation was carried on for three days from October 12 to 14 by a team of experts consisting of five members who are part of the enquiry committee. This committee consisted of one member each from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation's (CDSCO), Gujarat Food & Drugs Control Administration's (FDCA) office and three members from the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO).
According to Dr Hemant G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat FDCA, this team was specifically selected by the centre to jointly undertake the investigation so as to avoid any further controversy.
Recently, the Gujarat state government had been under media glare, as 20 kid's suffering from thalassemia were allegedly reported to have contracted with HIV infection after undergoing blood transfusion from Junagarh civil hospital.
Dr Koshia informed, “Things will be clearer in a weeks time as the investigation is already under process. As of now there have been lot of misrepresentation of the whole issue which has been blown out of proportion. Till now we have never faced a situation where allegedly so many people have been reported to have contracted HIV at this scale due to blood transfusion from a licensed blood bank.”
He added that out of the 20 children reported to be infected with HIV infection, two of them were already found to have an history of HIV as both their parents were tested positive with the same. Now with the enquiry under way it will help the government in getting further information on the causes of contraction on the other 18 children's who are said to be infected with HIV.
Dr Koshia pointed out that there are chances that these remaining children might have contracted the virus somewhere else due to some other reasons. “It is important to notice that there can be many reasons that could have exposed these kid's to a situation that might have lead to contraction of virus. Without proper investigation it would be unfair to blame the hospital or the blood bank,” he added.
Over the years, the state and the central government have jointly cancelled the licences of 15 blood banks in the state as they were found to be flouting the D&C Act. Dr Koshia informed that as of now there are 150 licensed blood banks, belonging to the state government and red cross in Gujarat.
“Gujarat has been very strict on implementing the D&C Act and Rules while granting the licences to the blood banks and we have constantly ensured that they maintain the standards and adhere to the law even after they are granted with license by periodically checking on them. Strict action will be taken against the blood bank and the hospital if they are found to be responsible for any lapses during the investigation,” Koshia said.