India :Teenage blood donor infected pregnant woman with HIV attempt Suicide

A 23 year old pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu who contracted HIV through blood transfusion has tested positive for Hepatitis B, said doctors at Madurai’s Government Rajaji Hospital, according to The Hindu.

• it was found that the teenage donor contracted HIV as early as 2016 when he donated blood at a camp in Sattur.

• 23-year-old pregnant woman was infected with HIV virus.

• The blood was negligently labelled safe by the hospital's lab technicians.

• The Madras High Court took up the matter on Thursday and directed the state government to file a status report by January 3.

Earlier tests had not confirmed her Hepatitis-B infection. The doctors have said the woman was responding well to the anti-retroviral therapy treatment, which included drugs for Hepatitis B as well.

Meanwhile, the teenager whose HIV-infected blood passed on the virus to the pregnant woman attempted suicide by consuming rat poison on Thursday, PTI reported.

The woman had contracted the virus after being transfused the blood donated by the teenager to a blood bank at a government hospital.

The woman, who is eight months pregnant, had been told earlier this month that she needed a transfusion because she was anaemic. She was given blood from the Sivakasi government hospital blood bank, but it later emerged that the 19-year-old donor was HIV-positive.

When the woman’s blood was tested, it was found that she had gotten infected. A preliminary inquiry showed that staff at the blood bank had not screened the blood properly before sending it to the hospital where the woman was admitted.


According to reports, the donor had been tested as HIV-positive in 2016 when he donated blood at a camp in Virudhunagar district’s Sattur town. However, he was out of town when the counsellor called him up to inform him. The counsellor left a message for him to report to the centre, but failed to pursue the case when he did not turn up, The Times of India  reported.

The Government Rajaji Hospital said the donor’s condition was now stable and he was recovering.

The man’s suicide attempt came on a day when the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and asked the Tamil Nadu government to file an action taken and status report by January 3.

The woman and her husband have filed a police complaint to seek action against the doctors, nurses and employees of the blood bank. The Tamil Nadu Health Department has fired three staff members of the hospital.