Man held for sale of tainted blood

The police arrested the owner of a medical laboratory in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district, 500 km northwest of Jaipur, on Saturday on charges of supplying HIV-infected blood to a local nursing home. HT Correspondent reports.

The police arrested the owner of a medical laboratory in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district, 500 km northwest of Jaipur, on Saturday on charges of supplying HIV-infected blood to a local nursing home.

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The accused, Hetram Goyal, has also been charged with collecting blood from donors and supplying it to the nursing home without screening it for infections.

Sriganganagar District Collector Ashutosh Pednekar said a complaint registered with the police two days ago said the blood donated in the laboratory by an HIV-positive man was transfused into some children.

“There is a person who is known to be HIV-positive and his name is also in the records of the medical department. However, he denies (on affidavit) having donated blood. We are looking into this,” Pednekar said.

The two children who were said to have received the blood of the HIV positive man three months ago—and eleven other people who had donated blood at the laboratory— have tested negative for HIV infection.

Pednekar said an investigation team comprising the joint director of the district’s health department, the chief medical health officer and the additional district magistrate have seized all records of the laboratory and found that the blood was not checked for infections after collection or before transfusion.

Dr BL Mishra, a member of the team, said they were talking to the donors to find out how long the unregistered laboratory has been in business.

The owner of the nursing home, Bharat Bhushan, is absconding, the police said.