Blood bank’s license cancelled for giving HIV+ blood

HYDERABAD - The licence of a blood bank in Andhra Pradesh was cancelled Wednesday after it gave HIV positive blood to a police constable injured in a road accident.

Jagruti Blood Bank in Rajahmundry town in coastal Andhra would be derecognised, R.V. Chandravadan, project director of Andhra Pradesh AIDS Control Society, told reporters after a high-level meeting here.

Taking a serious note of the incident, the government also asked the health department to submit within 15 days a report on the functioning of all blood banks in the state.

The blood bank was Tuesday sealed and the owner was arrested after it was proved that the blood bought from there and injected to the injured constable was HIV positive.

The police constable contracted the deadly virus after the blood was injected to him at a private hospital. The constable met with a road accident April 25 and was shifted to Abhaya Hospital, where he slipped into coma.

On the advise of doctors, relatives of the constable bought two sachets of blood from the blood bank. One of the sachets was injected into the policeman. As his condition worsened, he was shifted to Swatantra Institute of Medical Sciences. The doctors there tested the other blood sachet and to their shock found it infected with HIV.

Subsequent tests conducted on the constable confirmed that infected blood was given to him. Enraged over this, his relatives Tuesday ransacked the blood bank.

Police booked a case against the blood bank owner G. Nageswara Rao and arrested him.

A probe by local health officials revealed that the blood bank had collected the blood from a HIV positive patient April 18.

Following the incident, the health department is considering series of measures to ensure safety of blood by tightening the regulations.