Thaindian News

Mumbai, Nov 1 (IANS) The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Tuesday transferred two employees of a public hospital after they were found guilty of “negligence” in giving a wrong HIV report to a student, an official said.

The incident occurred Sep 26, when the student, Mahendra Mishra, who wanted a medical certificate for studying abroad, approached the BMC’s Saint Muktabai Hospital at Ghatkopar for the purpose.

“After taking his consent for a HIV test, the lab technicians took a blood sample from Mishra and sent it for analysis,” the official told IANS.

To Mishra’s shock and disbelief, he was handed a HIV-positive report, virtually ruining his plans to go abroad for further studies.

However, he went in for a second opinion by taking two more tests, the first at a private pathological lab and another at L&T; Centre’s ICTC lab, both in the eastern suburbs.

Mishra got the reports of the two tests Oct 7, both certifying him as “HIV-negative”.

He immediately complained to the BMC and the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society, a central-government funded NGO working for AIDS awareness.

“We inquired into the incident and found that the two lab technicians did not follow the rules while conducting such a critical test,” the official said.

He explained that if any patient’s blood report comes out HIV-positive, the rules mandate a second test to be carried out on that person to verify the previous result. However, this was not done in this particular instance, he said.

In fact, even the MDACS and other state and central AIDS agencies have issued guidelines to all public and private hospitals and laboratories to exercise similar caution in such cases.

Taking a very serious view of the gaffe, the BMC has transferred both the staffers - whose identity was not declared - and served them strict written warnings to ensure such a lapse does not occur in future.

Meanwhile, the official said that the relieved Mishra has resumed his objective of further studies abroad and plans to leave this weekend.