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MP: Pathology lab denies testing on engineer for HIV
A pathology laboratory in Madhya Pradesh’s Chattarpur district denied on Friday testing for HIV an engineer who burnt to death his wife and two daughters as part of an alleged suicide pact because the couple believed the whole family had been infected by the virus.
A pathology laboratory in Madhya Pradesh’s Chattarpur district denied on Friday testing for HIV an engineer who burnt to death his wife and two daughters as part of an alleged suicide pact because the couple believed the whole family had been infected by the virus.
The owner of the pathology lab said it was not possible for the lab to have tested the engineer as the facility only conducted tests for the dreaded virus for pregnant women.
Talking to Hindustan Times over phone, the pathology lab owner said: “You don’t forget a case where somebody tests positive for HIV at your lab. In fact, no one has tested positive for HIV at my lab since I upgraded my lab a few years ago. We have HIV testing kit for pregnant ladies only.”
“So there is no chance we ever conducted HIV test on this engineer, whose photo I saw in the newspapers,” he added.
He further said that chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of the district had sought a clarification from him on the claim made by the engineer that he had tested HIV-positive in a test conducted at his lab.
“...Had we tested him, we would have given a test report, which he could show to police and health officials. I suspect, he used the name of my lab as it is in front of the district hospital and he must have spotted it while visiting the hospital.”
Asked if the lab kept records of tests, the owner said the lab only has records for the past four months.
Confirming that “an explanation” was sought from the pathology lab on the engineer’s claim, Chattarpur CMHO Dr VK Gupta said since information of the HIV-positive people is kept confidential, the department has checked all records related to HIV cases in the district.
“This engineer was never registered with our integrated counselling and testing centre as a HIV patient.”
He, however, said the registration of the pathology lab has been cancelled after scrutiny of its documents. “We have cancelled his registration and those of nine other applicants after scrutiny of the documents.”
“We found that this lab had taken letter of consent from a government doctor as the owner of the lab was only a diploma holder and he had no proper pathologist to manage the lab,” Gupta said.
Meanwhile, a counsellor at the district integrated counselling and testing centre said that there were 125 HIV-positive people in the district at present, but the engineer had never approached them.
Read:Narco test likely on engineer who killed wife, daughters
