Maharashtra saw a four times rise in the number of people contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through blood transfusion and blood products between 2021 and 2022, revealed a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by activist Chetan Kothari.
Through blood transfusion, 272 people in Maharashtra contracted HIV in 2022 compared to 68 in 2021 and 49 in 2020. Between 2017 and 2022 (till July), Maharashtra reported a total of 1,010 HIV infections.
Dr Ishwar Gilada, AIDS Society of India President Emeritus and Governing Council Member International AIDS Society-IAS, Geneva, told Free Press Journal that any HIV infection through blood transfusion in the era of such well-developed science is criminal.
She further added that the percentage and probability of HIV transmission from contaminated blood can be reduced by using NAAT – nucleic acid amplification test – on donor's blood.
“Even blood safety started in Maharashtra only after my criminal writ petition in the Bombay High Court in 1989 that was against Serum Institute of India, Associated Labs, Bharat Serums and 15 blood banks in Mumbai and Thane. Back then, hundreds of professional blood donors were detected HIV positive by me. After nine years (of legal battle), the Supreme Court in 1998 mandated HIV screening in all blood banks of India,” Dr Gilada recalled.
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