Berhampur, Aug. 30: Transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through transfusion of blood to a four-and-half-year-old thalassemia patient at the MKCG Medical College and Hospital has posed serious questions about the safety standards being followed by the Red Cross-run blood bank here.

The boy had tested positive for HIV in the antigen tests conducted by the National AIDS Control Organisation in Berhampur on July 22. The administration was forced to form a five-member expert team to probe the incident following a huge hue and cry over the issue.

The team, led by additional district medical officer Saroj Mishra, today started its probe into the circumstances in which the boy was infected with HIV. The father of the boy said he had been coming only to MKCG for the boy's treatment of thalassemia and blood transfusion.

"We are screening the detailed reports of 68 blood units that were transfused to the boy and also whether the parents had taken the boy to any other hospital for treatment," said Mishra. The report will be submitted to the chief district medical officer (CDMO) and the district collector, he added.

Paediatricians Bijaya Kumar Panigrahi and Sunita Rani Senapati, medicine specialist Pramod Kumar Patnaik and District AIDS Prevention Control Programme manager Sameer Behera are members of the fact-finding team.

"HIV testing was carried out on the boy on a voluntary basis. There is no need to collect his blood sample again. But, we would like to conduct a test on the parents of the boy," said team member Patnaik.

The father of the boy blamed the hospital for the HIV transmission. He appeared before the inquiry team at the MKCG blood bank today upon being asked by the district collector. "He is my only child and the blood bank's wrong decision has resulted in this. My son will die any time in front of us and we will not be able to do anything. The blood bank has played with the life of my son and the guilty staff must be punished," he said, while adding the last blood transfusion of his boy took place at MKCG on July 13 and 14.

The boy was detected with thalassemia when he was six months old.

The Red Cross blood bank has the nucleic acid test (NAT) technology to screen HIV 1 and 2, Hepatitis B and C in blood samples.

Local MLA and BJD leader Ramesh Chandra Patnaik, who is also a physician, had inaugurated the NAT project on June 21. The machine was installed here on a priority basis because Ganjam tops the list of HIV infected patients in the state.

MKCG superintendent Ashok Kumar Behera said 233 thalassemia, 402 sickle cell and 25 haemophilia patients get free blood from the Red Cross blood bank here every month. "We are providing 100 to 120 units of blood every day after conducting all the necessary tests on the blood samples," he said.