650 patients blame blood transfusion for contracting HIV
NACO MAINTAINS THAT THE DATA IS NONSCIENTIFIC AND BASED ON SUBJECTIVE RESPONSES OF HIV POSITIVE PEOPLE WHO MAY NOT DECLARE THE EXACT REASON OF TRANSMISSION DUE TO LACK OF AWARENESS, SOCIETAL PRESSURE
More than 650 people in Haryana claim to have caught HIV through inappropriate blood transfusion. The data has been furnished by National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) in a reply to an RTI application. The query was filed by an RTI activist Nikhil M Babu.
As per the RTI, from financial year 2009-10 to 2015-16, as many as 658 people during their post-test counselling at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) claimed to have contracted HIV infection due to blood transfusion.
All those testing positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are given counselling, where patients are asked about the history of events that could have led to the transmission.
However, NACO maintains that the data is non-scientific, as it was based on subjective responses of HIV positive people, “who have the tendencies of not declaring exact reasons of transmissions because of lack of awareness and societal pressure.” “I had blood transfusion four years ago when I met with an accident. Despite recovery , I was losing a lot of weight. When I went for a test, I found out that I was HIV positive,” said 32-year-old Naresh (name changed), a Panipat resident, who is under treatment in Delhi.
For any HIV test, window period is most crucial as it is the time during which the HIV antibodies go undetected in infected patients. For enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) third gen or fourth gen tests, most commonly used to check for HIV in blood banks, this window period is between 14-21 days. If a person was infected with HIV, say two days ago and decides to donate blood, tests will not detect the infection.
PGIMS, Rohtak head of department, blood department, Dr PK Sehgal said, “ELISA takes 14-21 days to detect infection. We are following the test as per NACO guidelines.”