Chennai:
A 24-year-old woman in Tamil Nadu, who turned HIV-positive after she received infected blood during a transfusion at a government hospital, gave birth to a girl today at a hospital in Madurai.
The doctors said the baby is “underweight”, but she is “doing fine”. The HIV status of baby girl, who weighs 1.75 kg, can be confirmed only after 45 days, they said. For a newborn, 2.5 to 3.5 kg is considered to be normal weight.
The woman got HIV after she underwent blood transfusion on December 3 at a government hospital in Virudhunagar district, around 500 km from Chennai.
A 19-year-old man had donated the HIV-infected blood on November 30 at the government hospital. He died last month following a suicide attempt.
Unaware of the blood infection earlier, he got to know he was HIV positive on December 17 as part of routine medical check-up for an overseas job. The man then consumed rat poison at his home in Ramanathapuram and died at a hospital three days later.
The incident drew widespread condemnation from opposition parties in the state. Three lab technicians were suspended for negligence at the hospital blood bank.