Syringe may not account for HIV spread: Officials

UNNAO DISTRICT CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER SAYS THE VILLAGE’S LARGE MIGRATORY POPULATION COULD BE TO BLAME

UNNAO: It’s likely that the selfstyled “doctor” accused of infecting people in Unnao with HIV with a contaminated syringe may not alone account for the spread of the virus. Officials say the region’s large migratory population and high-risk behaviour could also be the reason.

HIV spreads through an infected person’s body fluids, such as blood, semen, pre-seminal fluids, and breast milk. In India, it spreads primarily through unsafe sex and sharing needles to inject drugs, which leads to stigma against those infected.

“We have registered an FIR against the quack on the basis of what villagers told us, but we cannot overlook the fact that such fast spread of HIV infection over a year isn’t possible entirely due to use of a single infected needed,” said NG Ravi Kumar, district magistrate, Unnao.

The accused, Rajendra Yadav, was arrested on Wednesday from the house of a relative, and has been booked under sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease deadly to life) and 308 (culpable homicide) of the IPC and section 15(3) of the Indian Medical Council Act.

The district’s chief medical officer, SP Chowdhary, also says that while the initial investigation suspected the quack, the village’s large migratory population could be to blame.

“The syringe infection theory is doubtful because the virus doesn’t survive in the needle for months, and he was giving intra-muscular shots and not intravenous shots for it to spread the way it has spread. There is a possibility that it is a wrong accusation against the doctor,” he said.