HIV infection after blood transfusion in hospitals

In a case similar to the one of the HIV- infected girl, Reham, who was mistakenly given HIVpositive blood during a transfusion at a hospital awhile ago, 15 year- old Muhli Al- Shamari, was also infected with HIV blood during a transfusion.

Muhli was transferred to three different hospitals after a traffic accident that required his leg to be amputated. As shocking as both cases are, the difference is that Reham’s blood transfusion was from one known source while the boy, Muhli, was given blood in three different hospitals, making it much more difficult to pinpoint the source of the infected blood.

Muhli and his brother were involved in a traffic accident on Hail- Turbah road more than six months ago and the two of them were taken to the nearest hospital at Baqaa city, 100 km to the north of Hail.

Muhli’s leg was amputated there and the medical team decided to transfer the boy to King Khaled Hospital in Hail where his other leg was also amputated. Given the severity of his wounds, Muhli again received another blood transfusion at King Khaled Hospital.

After 15 days in this hospital, the teenager was transferred once more to King Fahd Hospital at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, where he stayed for five months during which he was subjected to other medical procedures.

Speaking to the press recently, the boy recounted how he came to learn that he was infected. He claimed that a nurse of Asian origin was cleaning his wounds when the nurse cut herself and some of her blood came into contact with Muhli’s wounds.

“This incident is not strange in itself, but afterward a team of nurses came telling me that I should undergo immediate laboratory tests on the ground that the hospital’s procedures require this when a nurse is wounded”, Muhli was quoted as saying to local media.

Test results, he added, revealed that he was infected with HIV, but not the nurse herself which meant that Muhli’s infection preceded his admission to King Fahd Hospital.

According to Muhli’s brothers, the date of his infection with HIV is not known because he moved along three hospitals and underwent blood transfusion in each one of them.

His brothers appealed to the Royal Court and the Ministry of Health for help in the treatment of Muhli, to which the Royal Court quickly responded by giving health assistance. The family is now waiting to complete procedures to move Muhli to a US hospital for treatment.