Daijiworld Media Network - Tumakuru (SP)

Tumakuru, Sep 27: A woman from Sira in the district had to consume drugs prescribed to her to treat her HIV-positive condition for two years in addition to aborting her pregnancy because of a faulty blood test report.

A pregnant woman who had visited the government hospital at Sira two years back got the blood test report which said that she was HIV-positive. The woman, taken aback by the report, went to Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) at the government district hospital here. Although ICTC was expected to conduct detailed test again to confirm the finding, it just depended on the Sira hospital's report and gave her drugs to combat HIV/AIDS. She aborted her pregnancy because of this and continued to obtain medications for two years.

Recently the woman became pregnant for the second time. When she got herself tested in a private hospital, her blood test reports did not indicate HIV infection. Taken aback, the woman got herself tested in another private hospital, where too her blood test report said she was normal. She then got the test done once more at the district government hospital, which confirmed that she was not a victim of this deadly infection.

Apparently because of the faulty diagnosis at Sira hospital, the woman not only lost her first child but also two years of precious time during which she remained worried and perhaps would have suffered from side affects of medicines. Her close ones had kept distance from her and the society had treated her with a sense of derision and apprehension.

When a vernacular daily contacted taluk medical officer, Dr Thimmaraju, about this development, he said he was in a meeting and would get apprised of this case once he came back to hospital.