LAHORE: A four-member committee of senior doctors has found no thalassaemia patient in Lahore who reportedly contracted AIDS virus during blood transfusion or treatment.

The committee, however, recommended to the Punjab government to perform laboratory tests of the 10,000 registered thalassaemic children getting treatment in public and private health facilities. The tests of these patients are immediately required to diagnose AIDS, it proposed.

Also read:10 thalassemic children get HIV from transfusions

Headed by Prof Dr Mahfoozur Rehman, the committee submitted its report to the health department on Thursday. It was formed on Wednesday when a TV channel reported that some thalassaemic children carried AIDS virus during blood transfusion.

Recommends clinical examination of 10,000 children

According to an official, the committee visited Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where the suspected thalassaemic patients with AIDS were reported. The committee officials interviewed doctors, nurses and admin officials and also examined official record of the Thalassaemia Centre.

He said though the committee members found no baby affected by AIDS, they had observed that the Centre failed to produce record of blood screening before its transfusion to the patients. He said the committee also observed that the Centre was managing blood from private labs, putting lives of the patients at grave risk.

It recommended measures in phases to re-examine the process of treatment through blood transfusion in all the health facilities to prevent children from the deadly diseases like AIDS.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Thalassaemia Federation of Pakistan (TFP) said during the 9th National Thalassaemia Conference & Workshops held in Lahore on Nov 29-30, 2014, Prof Dr Javaria Mannan, chairperson of the TFP’s Medical Advisory Board, had informed the participants that there was a very high incidence of hepatitis B and C in transfusion dependent thalassaemics in the country as up to 80pc of patients were hepatitis B or C positive.

She also said that recently a small number of thalassaemics had been found to be HIV-positive. The situation was found to be alarming and it was stressed during the conference that the institute should pressure the government to improve the screening of the blood to be transfused to the patients.

“The TFP wants to clarify that the information was not specific to any particular thalassaemia centre or city but highlighted the deteriorating blood screening throughout the country. Prof Javaria Mannan has gone to the USA and more details on this subject will be announced upon her return to Pakistan,” it said.

Moreover, the TFP has also requested the thalassaemia societies and centres across the country to get Nucleic Acid Test as blood screening conducted through Elisa is not reliable. The TFP through Hussain Blood Bank, Karachi has offered Nat test at a reduced price of Rs800 to all the member societies, the statement added.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2014