Sattur woman’s baby tests negative for HIV

With the twenty-four-year-old woman being eight months pregnant when infected blood-that was collected from a HIV-positive patient and stored in the blood bank-was transfused into her body by mistake at Virudhunagar Government Hospital in December 2018, the dean of Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital, K Vanitha, on Saturday dispelled fears of the baby having contracted the virus by officially declaring the baby to have tested negative for the antibody.

The dean, when earlier contacted, said results turned negative when polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was done on the child--forty-five days after her birth--in a hospital in Guindy, Chennai as per guidelines of the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO). On Saturday, the baby underwent Rapid Test-card Method in Madurai GRH and the third phase of the test would be reportedly done a year later.

The girl child’s woman, who was happy about the test results, was called a week ago for performing the test. Since it was found inconvenient for the employee in Virudhunagar Government Hospital working as office assistant in TANSACS, the woman brought her baby to Madurai GRH on Saturday, when she spent around two hours. The baby’s physical and mental parameters have been found to be normal, and she weighed about six kilos, the dean said.

In an earlier relief, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday had ordered payment of Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the woman from Sattur. The court also ordered the State government to allocate additional funds to the woman for the construction of a house.