Two thalassemia patients – an 11-year-old girl and a 22-year-old man – have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Faridabad after allegedly receiving infected blood during transfusions, health department officials said on Tuesday.
An investigation has been launched to trace the source of the infection, with authorities reaching out to medical facilities in Delhi and Bihar where the patients had previously received transfusions.
Officials said the HIV-positive status of both patients came to light in mid-January after routine blood tests were conducted at Badshah Khan Civil Hospital. The girl, a Class 4 student from near Faridabad’s Sector 91, and the man, a resident of Surajkund in Faridabad, are both dependent on regular blood transfusions due to thalassemia.
Soon after the reports were received, health authorities conducted detailed counselling sessions for both patients and their family members. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has since been initiated and will continue for life, alongside their ongoing thalassemia treatment.
A senior health department official said both patients had been under routine monitoring by an NGO, Foundation Against Thalassemia, for eight and 15 years respectively and had previously tested HIV-negative last year. “About a year ago, the NGO conducted their blood tests at a private diagnostic centre in Faridabad and they were HIV-negative,” the official said.
However, around four months ago, fresh routine tests conducted by the NGO indicated that both patients had turned HIV-positive. “As per protocol, the laboratory authorities alerted us and the NGO officials immediately after the results,” the official added.
Ravinder Dudeja, general secretary of the NGO, said the infections likely occurred in the past year. “The girl underwent at least 15 transfusions and the man about 25 in the last year. During this period, they may have received an infected unit,” he said.
Dudeja suggested that the infected blood could have been donated during the “window period” – referring to the early stage of HIV infection when standard screening tests may not detect the virus. He said that he has filed a complaint about unsafe blood transfusion practices on the Prime Minister’s Office grievance portal and has also written to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, urging mandatory implementation of Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) at all blood banks to detect infections at an early stage.
Dr Jayant Ahuja, chief medical officer of Faridabad, said that an investigation has been launched but suggested that pinpointing the exact donor may prove difficult. “The duo received blood from the government blood bank at Badshah Khan Civil Hospital and four private banks, but the donors screened here were not HIV-positive,” he said.
He added that both patients had also undergone transfusions in Delhi and at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) before settling in Faridabad.
A senior official in Haryana’s food and drug administration department, who asked not to be identified, said that they have written to the concerned blood bank in Delhi and to PMCH to examine donor records linked to the patients. “It may take months to trace the infected donor or donors,” the official said.
Calling the case serious, Ahuja said both the Haryana and central governments have been alerted. Further inquiry will depend on reports from Delhi and Patna, including whether the suspected donors’ blood may have been supplied to others, he added.
