RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday pulled up government officials after reports surfaced of children testing HIV positive following blood transfusions in a government hospital in West Singhbhum.
During the hearing, the court has directed officials to submit an affidavit providing details of blood donation camps held in both government and private hospitals.
The court also sought information on the current demand and availability of blood in state hospitals. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Rajesh Shankar strongly reprimanded state government officials, terming such incidents extremely serious, and directed the government to take immediate action to prevent their recurrence.
The court observed that such incidents reflect grave lapses in the state’s healthcare monitoring system and must be treated with utmost urgency.
During the hearing, Health Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh, the Project Director of the Jharkhand AIDS Control Society, and the State Drug Controller were also present in person before the court.
Emphasising accountability and public safety, the Bench warned that such incidents could not be tolerated and called for immediate corrective action.
The court further stressed that the government must strengthen the monitoring of blood banks and ensure foolproof testing procedures to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.
Earlier on Friday, taking a suo-moto cognisance of the media reports that a seven-year-old child contracted HIV after being transfused with infected blood at Sadar Hospital at West Singhbhum, the Jharkhand High Court had ordered an urgent probe into the matter and sought a detailed report from the state health department.
Following the Court’s directive, a high-level medical investigation team from Ranchi visited Chaibasa on Saturday to inspect the hospital’s blood bank and related facilities.
During the investigation, it was discovered that four more children had been given infected blood and were found to be HIV positive.
The team inspected the hospital's blood bank and PICU ward and gathered detailed information from the children's families.
During the investigation, the medical team discovered several deficiencies and serious irregularities during their inspection of the blood bank and laboratory.
Preliminary findings indicate that poor testing protocols, lack of supervision, and procedural negligence may have allowed contaminated blood to be used for transfusions — a failure that has endangered several young lives.
