ISLAMABAD: The two-member committee formed by the Ministry of National Health Services has failed to get data about the 10 thalassemia-inflicted children who reportedly tested positive for HIV virus (HIV) after allegedly receiving a transfusion of contaminated blood.

It may be mentioned that a few days ago the shocking news was shared with the participants of a seminar by Dr Javeria Mannan, who was doing a research on thalassemia patients. Later, Dr Yasmin Rashid, the secretary general of the Thalassemia Federation of Pakistan, also confirmed the report.

Read: 10 thalassemic children get HIV from transfusions

The ministry of health formed the two-member committee, consisting of Manager National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai and National Coordinator Safe Blood Transfusion Programme Dr Hasan Abbas Zaheer, to probe the matter.

When contacted, Dr Zaheer told Dawn that though the committee could not get the particulars of the children it had finalised its recommendations.

Also read: Curing thalassemia... with tainted blood

“I believe that every controversy creates an opportunity so the government should now resolve the issue of unscreened blood in the country.”

At the moment, he said, imported kits were being used for the screening of blood all over the country. The government should issue a statutory regulatory order (SRO) to stop the import of substandard blood screening kits, he said.

Also read: 1,029 mothers, 211 kids contract HIV/Aids

Mr Zaheer was of the view that only blood screening kits recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other reliable health regulatory bodies should be used. He said it had been recommended that a national thalassemia policy should be formulated and legislation should be done to ensure that not a single thalassemia-affected child was born in the country.

Moreover, it was also recommended that the import of substandard blood screening kits should be stopped and blood bank regulatory bodies should be strengthened.

Also read: Committee finds no AIDS case in thalassaemia patients

In reply to a question, Dr Zaheer said he cannot say that HIV virus cannot affect a thalassemia patient but during the inquiry the committee could not get data about the 10 children.

In the evening, the ministry of health in a statement said the committee in its findings reported that the Pakistan Thalassemia Federation had failed to provide it a list of patients and their laboratory reports. “The federation has actually disassociated itself from the controversy and denied any knowledge about the HIV positive thalassemia patients.”

Also read| Unscreened blood transfusion: 12-year-old boy fights against Aids

Furthermore, the National AIDS Programme has also stated that no samples of any suspected HIV positive thalassemia patient had been received in the recent past from Lahore or Rawalpindi/Islamabad for confirmatory testing in their national referral laboratory in Islamabad.

When contact, Dr Yasmin Rashid said Dr Javeria had informed her that the 10 children inflicted with thalassemia had also been tested positive for HIV.

Pims Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Javed Akram told Dawn that it was a very sensitive issue and cannot be resolved by denying it.

“We have to accept that people are continuously getting affected with contaminated blood. Almost 20 per cent patients who get blood transfusions are affected with hepatitis and one per cent with HIV. Even patients coming to Pims for laboratory tests have been detected with HIV. The ratio of diseases due to contaminated blood is more in patients who come from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2014