Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination (NHSRC) Saira Afzal Tarar has sought a detailed report from the committee in two days. The ministry said those found guilty will be given exemplary punishment.
The team comprises National AIDS Control Programme Manager Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai and Safe Blood Transfusion Programme (SBTP) Project Director Dr Hassan Abbas Zaheer.
Zaheer told The Express Tribune that it was too early to blame blood transfusions for the HIV.
At the same time, he said that a large number of thalassaemia patients in Pakistan are at the risk of acquiring infectious diseases including HIV/Aids because of ineffective blood regulatory authorities.
Dr Zaheer said that a number of blood banks across the country are selling blood for transfusions without proper screening. He said injection drug users (IDU) also sell blood to some blood banks to make a quick buck, adding that such people were playing with innocent people’s lives.
Moreover, he said there are many cheap and substandard blood screening kits available in the market and many blood banks use these.
Dr Zaheer said that around 5,000 to 6,000 people in Pakistan are born with thalassaemia major, and a large share are from poor families.
“For parents, the first concern is arranging blood every week to keep their children alive. They don’t pay attention to the source of the blood,” he said.
Pakistan faces an acute shortage of blood for transfusions, the SBTP project director said, adding that out of the total amount of blood collected annually through donations, 30 per cent is given to thalassaemia patients.
One confirmed case in Islamabad
Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Children Hospital Assistant Professor Dr Naila Yaqub said that at present, out of 1,250 patients registered with the hospital’s thalassaemia centre, one has tested positive for HIV.
Sharing details, she said R*, 20, who hails from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and now lives in Rawalpindi, is a thalassemia major patient. She tested positive for HIV after receiving infected blood from a blood bank in Rawalpindi.
She hails from an extremely poor family that cannot even afford to pay for transport to reach the hospital, Dr Yaqub said.
Rubina is the youngest of three sisters. An elder sister died last year. She said that even the thalassaemia centre finds it difficult to arrange blood for patients due to limited supply.
*name changed to protect identity
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2014.
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