Why in news?
A 23-year-old pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu tested positive for HIV after receiving a unit of blood at a government hospital blood bank.
What is the mandate?
- Testing all donated blood units for a number of transfusion-transmissible infections, including HIV, is mandatory in India.
- The ELISA test is used in all blood banks to screen for HIV.
- Notably, ELISA test has very high levels of sensitivity to diagnose samples positive for the virus.
- Since 2004, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Action Plan-specified guidelines are being followed.
- All blood banks are required to obtain from donors a written consent on their wish to be informed about a positive test result.
- In case of testing positive for HIV, blood banks are required to refer the donors to designated voluntary counselling and testing centres (VCTCs) for disclosure and counselling.
- VCTCs are required to inform the blood bank of a donor’s status only when the confirmatory test done at the VCTC too is positive.
- This is to stop the person from donating blood in the future.
What happened in the recent case?
- The donor’s HIV-positive status became known in 2016 when he donated blood at the same blood bank.
- This particular donor had consented to be informed of a positive result.
- It is said that the blood bank tried but failed to contact the donor in 2016 to inform him of his HIV positive status.
- But recently he had found out elsewhere that he was HIV-positive, and dutifully contacted the hospital.
- But his blood (recent donation) had already been transfused to the pregnant woman.
- The donor passed away after consuming poison following the incident.
What is to be done?
- Blood banks in India have a success rate of less than 50% in contacting donors testing positive for transfusion-transmissible infections.
- Only half of the consented donors are contactable and even fewer visit a VCTC.
- So NACO should address the lapses in screening procedures and also find a viable alternative to contact them without compromising the donor’s identity.
- The focus should also be on creating awareness among donors to visit a VCTC to confirm their HIV status when alerted by blood banks.
Source: The Hindu
