The report of the government-appointed expert panel, headed by Joint Director of Medical Education K. Sreekumari, which inquired into the circumstances which may have led to a nine-year-old leukaemia patient contracting HIV through blood transfusions while undergoing treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre, has found no human error or negligence leading to the unfortunate incident
The same has been endorsed in the inquiry reports by the Kerala State AIDS Control Society and that of the RCC.
All reports point out that all current blood safety guidelines mandated by the National AIDS Control Organisation have been meticulously followed by the Regional Cancer Centre blood bank.
Screening tests
“There has been no negligence or human error as far as observation of existing blood safety guidelines are concerned. But considering the fact that most cancer patients require repeated blood transfusions, putting them at high risk of blood-borne infections, fourth generation screening tests like Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) facilities should be necessarily introduced in all five government medical colleges, the RCC and the Malabar Cancer Centre,” a senior health official said.
There is an inherent risk of getting a blood-borne infection from a donor who is in the window period and the current Elisa screening methods in government blood banks are inadequate.
“Total elimination of the window period may not be possible, but NAT can bring down the window period to 10-12 days. We also think that pre-donation counselling should improve so that donors are made better aware of the consequences of blood donation, if at all they have been exposed to any high-risk behaviour. This means that more counsellors are needed in our blood banks,” a senior Health official said.