Balasore: After the final report from FRL Diagnostics Laboratory in Mumbai made available to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack confirmed transfusion of Hepatitis C infected blood to a three-year-old thalassemic girl of Paduanpada at the blood bank of the district headquarters hospital here, as many as 460 thalassemic patients who have been regularly receiving blood here are now dreading the possibility of having contracted HPC.
The SCB authorities revealed the results of the girl’s report to her father Thursday.
Meanwhile, the blood samples of many thalassemic patients have been sent to SCB for test. The girl’s infection was diagnosed at SCB May 28, while the last time the girl was transfused blood at the blood bank of Balasore DHH was May 7. The girl had received blood 29 times at the blood bank.
On the other hand, it is alleged that the blood bank and DHH authorities are investing new pleas so as to wash their hands off the issue. Shockingly, some health officials were heard spreading the word that the girl might have contracted HPC from her parents.
In the wake of the Mumbai-based laboratory’s revelation, the district administration has not taken any action in this direction. Chief district medical officer Dr Bhawani Shankar Pani, who had earlier expressed doubt over the reliability of the SCB report and indirectly denied possibility of infected blood transfusion at DHH, stated that action will be taken only after the matter is investigated by a technical committee.
It was learnt that the blood bank usually receives 15,000 units of blood through voluntary organisations. Blood is transfused to patients after confirming that it is free from malaria parasite, HPC, HPB, syphilis and HIV. But the problem is that such tests are done through ELISA method in two or three days while many experts have observed that blood samples with four or five-day-old fatal infection of PHC or HIV can not been confirmed through ELISA method.
Meanwhile, health minister Atanu Sabysachi Nayak Friday said blood will be tested with ultramodern methods at all blood banks in state.
The guardians of thalassemic kids, however, are now worried over an insidious apprehension that their kids might have contracted HPC at the blood bank.
Blood bank officer Dr Basant Kumar Upadhyaya said the blood test report from the Mumbai lab has been sent to the health secretary and district headquarters hospital. “The CDMO will take the final call on the matter,” he added. PNN
