Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Hospital is unwilling to accept its negligence for two HIV-positive children, who were found infected due to tainted blood transfusion as the hospital declared its blood transfusion system safe and secure.

“Two children of an employee of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Kairal and Deep aged, seven and eight years were tested for HIV in November 2016, but their quantitative load of virus could not be followed up by their father due to his family commitments,” it was said by the Executive Director of Capital Hospital Dr. Muhammad Fiaz Lodhi while addressing a news conference in the hospital on Thursday.

Earlier, the hospital administration did not make the news public, but when the same appeared in the media, the Member Administration CDA directed to constitute a committee to probe the subject.

In the report of the said committee, the source of contact of HIV could not be indicated by giving reasons that blood products transfused to the patients were collected from different sources i.e. PIMS, Armed Forced Institute of Transfusion, Poly Clinic, Capital Hospital, Shifa International Hospital, Pakistan Red Crescent etc.

“Both the children are suffering from the disease Glanzmann Thrombasthenia since birth, in which repeated blood transfusions are required to control the disease. All such patients are registered with the nearest Thalassemia Centres for a regular supply of blood and blood products”, a brief exchanged with media persons stated.

While declaring his hospital’s blood transfusion centre fully safe and secure, Dr. Lodhi said: “We have a state of the art system and anybody can check that these children were transfused screened blood from our hospital.”

He said further that currently, both the children were admitted in the hospital for loose motions and un-controlled fever. The blood tests for PCR to find out the viral load had been sent and its result was expected in the next two weeks. After that the management will refer them to HIV/AIDS Treatment Centre run by National AIDS Control Programme (NIH) Islamabad for further treatment.

While answering a question, Dr. Lodhi said: “We have already spent 2.5 million on these children as their father is an employee of the CDA and we will continue our efforts to save their lives as finding HIV positive does not mean that they are suffering from AIDS disease.”

Although, no institution is ready to take the responsibility of its negligence as usual, but one thing is quite clear that the whole paradigm of blood transfusion needs a review as HIV/AIDS is an extreme disease which is found rarely, but HCV and HBV is quite common nowadays.

On the other side, first, it’s looking impossible that the government would fix the responsibility on any blood bank for the aforementioned unsafe transfusion of blood, but if some miracle happens and the government is able to grill the culprits then it can only punish them with an imprisonment for a term which my extend to one year or with a fine up to 100,000 rupees or with both under the section 11 of the Islamabad Transfusion of Safe Blood Ordinance, 2002.

How unfortunate it is that those who are playing with the lives of people by transfusing unsafe blood in their veins can be punished with such minor punishments.

The law should be strict enough in cases where lives of the people are on stake to create fear and terror among masses, the deterrent theory of punishment suggested in English jurisprudence.