Translated material
Inconclusive diagnosis
The number of Voronezh residents infected by blood transfusion from a donor with AIDS may increase
Yesterday in Voronezh it turned out that another patient who received a blood transfusion from a sick donor may be infected with AIDS. Assistant Prosecutor of the Voronezh Region Galina Gorshkova told Vremya Novostei that in the framework of the criminal case initiated by the prosecutor’s office under Art. 122 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Infection of a person with HIV infection due to improper performance of official duties”, a case of possible infection of an 11-year-old girl is currently being investigated.First Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Health Care of the Voronezh Region, Mikhail Ivanov, explained yesterday that a small patient in one of the children's hospitals in Voronezh, who was transfused with drugs based on the blood of an HIV-infected donor during the period from December 14, 2004 to April 28, 2005, suffers from a chronic form of a serious illness. . And it is not yet clear whether the symptoms identified in her are a consequence of HIV infection or are they the consequences of the disease. According to Mr. Ivanov, the final diagnosis can be made after repeated examinations. Voronezh doctors refuse to clarify the patient’s details, but, apparently, we are talking about an 11-year-old patient.
Let us recall that the scandal associated with the transfusion of contaminated donor blood to patients in Voronezh erupted in mid-November. Then the positive results of tests for the presence of HIV infection in the blood of a young woman who was transfused with plasma from the blood of an infected donor at the end of May in one of the Voronezh maternity hospitals were confirmed. HIV-infected plasma was transfused to seven residents of Voronezh. In five, the test showed a negative result. Some of the infected blood was used to prepare albumin. An examination of all 208 patients who were transfused with albumin, made, among other things, from the blood of an HIV-infected donor, is currently ongoing. The survey is expected to be completed in the next two to three days. According to Mr. Ivanov, tests showed negative results in 157 out of 208 patients. However, after three months, blood will be drawn from all recipients for re-testing. The official claims that the possibility of human infection due to albumin transfusion “is negligible; not a single such case has been recorded in world practice.”
Mr. Ivanov also said yesterday that the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development appealed to the arbitration court with a request to revoke the license for all types of activities of the Voronezh Regional Blood Transfusion Station. According to him, this decision was made after an inspection by the Roszdravnadzor commission of the Voronezh station, where one patient was infected as a result of a blood transfusion from an HIV-infected donor. Blood in which HIV infection was detected was obtained at a regional transfusion station in May of this year from a regular donor - a 35-year-old woman. Although the results of her tests alerted the doctors, the blood was put into production. It is still unclear why the three-month quarantine for dispensing blood products was not observed at the Voronezh blood transfusion station. If this had been done, after receiving a second test confirming that the donor was HIV-infected, all drugs in the production of which her blood was used could be destroyed. And thus eliminate the possibility of infection with contaminated blood of patients in Voronezh hospitals. However, less than a month later, as a result of a transfusion of plasma obtained from infected blood, a woman who was in one of the city’s maternity hospitals was infected.
The head of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development, Ramil Khabriev, believes that the cause of the Voronezh tragedy was the human factor, since the employees of the regional station, unable to withstand the three-month quarantine for dispensing blood products, violated the instructions. Now, in accordance with Article 122 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the perpetrators face a penalty of up to five years in prison. During 2005, four donors were identified in Voronezh with HIV infection in their blood, and seven city residents were diagnosed with suspected HIV infection at the transfusion station. All blood received from them was destroyed.