Following the incident of alleged HIV infected blood obtained from a private blood bank at Rajahmundry, the drug control administration in Andhra Pradesh has intensified inspections in all the 233 blood banks in the state.

Director General of Drug Control Administration in Andhra Pradesh R P Meena said that inspection has been intensified in all the blood banks in the state following the alleged HIV infected blood obtained from a private blood bank in Rajahmundry to administer an injured police constable recently.

The inspection is aimed at ensuring whether the blood bank units are operating with proper equipment like Elisa Readers and following the norms of Drugs & Cosmetics Act. Meena said the state health department is formulating new guidelines for proper running of blood banks in the State.

He said so far the regulatory staff have conducted inspections in 214 blood banks and samples were taken for analytical testing. Inspection in the remaining blood banks will be done before the end of this month. The results of the inspections shall be available by June 15.

The state drug controller M Kodandaram said process of cancellation of licence of the suspected blood bank, Jagruti Blood Bank in Rajahmundry town in coastal Andhra, is in the process and following the incident it has stopped operations. The department has already issued a production suspension order to the bank. He said the results of samples taken from other blood banks for testing were found HIV negative and they can be used for distribution.

Last Month a police constable had met with a road accident in Kakinada and was taken to a private hospital in Rajamundri. He was administered blood obtained from Jagruti Blood Bank. Later it was found that the blood was HIV infected.

Based on this, the health department has formed a five-member committee headed by the District Medical and Health Officer of East Godavari district to conduct an enquiry. The committee in its report to the government stated that the police constable was administered with HIV infected blood procured from a private blood bank in Rajahmundry.

The local police in Rajahmundri have registered a separate case against the blood bank which was later sealed. The police also booked a case against its owner, G. Nageswara Rao, and was arrested.

On the advice of doctors, relatives of the constable bought two sachets of blood from the blood bank. One of the sachets was injected into the policeman. As his condition worsened, he was shifted to a major hospital. The doctors there tested the other blood sachet and found that it was infected with HIV, sources from the drugs control department said.