Another thalassemic kid tests HIV positive

While the hospital authorities could not be contacted despite repeated efforts,his parents,like that of other affected children,maintained they have been procuring blood for transfusion only from JCH.

“He was diagnosed with thalassemia when he was seven-month-old. And all these years he has been undergoing treatment only at the Junagadh Civil Hospital,” said the boy’s father. “To go far or to any private hospital is not an affordable option for us. And that’s why we have never taken treatment anywhere else.”

Of the nearly 400 children registered with the thalassemic ward of JCH,the first child was tested HIV positive in January 2011. Till August 2011,22 more such cases surfaced.

The state government immediately ordered an inquiry and gave a clean chit to the hospital claiming the children had contracted the virus prior to their admission to JCH.