The six-month-old baby of the woman from Sattur in Virudhunagar, who was transfused with HIV-positive blood at a government hospital in December last year, tested negative for HIV at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai on Saturday. This comes a day after the Madras High Court ordered the Tamil Nadu government to sanction Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the mother.
The baby is supposed to undergo three tests — one at 45 days, the second after six months and the third after 18 months. Two have been completed, both showing favourable results.
When the first test was concluded, K Senthil Raj, project director of Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society said that the first set of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) tests, conducted at the end of the sixth week (45-days) on March 27, had shown negative results.
The Times of India states that a method called ‘rapid card test’ was used in this second test and a total of three ‘rapid card tests’ were done on Saturday. Madurai GRH Dean Vanitha said, “The test was done as the baby reached six months and it was done as per protocol. All three samples showed negative for HIV infection.”
The baby had been prescribed antiretroviral treatment for 45 days after birth to prevent any infection. The baby was also only given infant formula to prevent the transfer of HIV through breast milk. Doctors opine that it is unlikely for the test results to change during the third test.
In December 2018, the 23-year-old pregnant woman had undergone a blood transfusion at the Sattur government hospital, only to discover that the donated blood carried HIV. It was alleged that the blood bank staff failed to properly screen the donated blood. Following this, multiple public interest litigations (PILs) were filed in court demanding compensation for the victim's physical and mental trauma.