LARKANA: In a startling revelation that throws into question credibility of entire process of blood screening for HIV being carried out by government health facilities, six emplo­y­ees of Sindh High Court who initially tested HIV positive in a test conducted by Chandka Med­i­cal College Hospital (CMCH) were declared HIV negative in the second test the same day at private laboratories.

Sources in SHC circuit Larkana said on Friday that the additional registrar of SHC had written a letter to the medical superintendent of CMCH on June 11 asking him for conducting tests of court officials for HIV and hepatitis B and C and carrying out their vaccination.

The MS sent a technician with blood screening kits, who conducted test of the six employees and declared all of them were HIV positive, said the sources, adding even a doctor and a dispenser working at the high court tested HIV positive.

The total number of employees working at the judges’ lodge was 11, said the sources.

The test results shocked the employees and they decided to undergo another test at private laboratories to further confirm the results.

Fortunately, all of them tur­n­ed out to be HIV negative in the second test, said the sources in the registrar’s office.

CMCH MS Dr Abdul Sattar Shaikh quoted Dr Holaram, in-charge of HIV/AIDS treatment centre, as saying that he suspected that the screening kits might not have been kept at required temperature.

Dr Holaram told Dawn on Friday that if there was an issue of temperature with the kits the first test could result in positive and would be treated as negative.

He said the technician might have added extra drops while conducting tests.

He had conveyed technicalities of the tests and results and also shown the registrar relevant literature, which said the possibility could not be ruled out that the first test could be positive, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2019