At AIIMS for cancer cure, boy gets HIV from infected blood

At AIIMS for cancer cure, boy gets HIV from infected blood
Sunetra Choudhary

NEW DELHI, FEB 14: When Gagandeep turns 11-years-old on Thursday, he will not be just another kid with a big smile. He isn't the latest sportstar to watch out for, a music prodigy or a maths magician. No. He is of that rarest breed of men: A smiling survivour.

For the last thre years, leukaemia has lived along with the 10 year old. Treatment at AIIMS had involved blood transfusions till doctors had pronounced that he would be rid of the disease, Acute Lymphotrophic Leukaemia (ALL), in two months.

Then, last year, an enlarged liver and a low blood count prompted doctors to order a series of tests. ``It was at that time that we found, by accident, that he was HIV positive,'' says Prof L K Arya of AIIMS Department of Paediatrics, who is oveseeing Gagandeep's treatment.

It was the first time doctors at AIIMS saw a case of HIV being transmitted due to transfusions. Though infections like Hepatitis B and C can be contracted via transfusions, contracting HIV is unusual. The blood bank, reportedly, cannot be held responsible as it does not even claim to have infection-free blood!

``I was so mad when I found out, I wanted to sue them,'' said Gagandeep's father. ``But, do I run around courts or do I look after my sick son?''

His son, however, has no complaints. Gagandeep, like any other boy of his age, goes to a Kendriya Vidyalaya school. And the most striking thing about him, which doctors vouch for, is that ``he always has a smile on his face.''

It is with the same smile that he describes his condition: ``I know that if my blood falls, and someone with a wound touches it, they will get my disease.''

How does that make him feel?'' ``Bad -- no one will want to come near me.''

Gagandeep's trials started in 1998 when he developed swelling under his ears. His father, a defence personnel, was posted in Srinagar and the family was staying in Pokhran. The family thought it was tonsils but when the swelling didn't subside, they took him to Jodhpur.

There, Gagandeep was diagnosed with (ALL) and referred to AIIMS. The family, which has two other children older than Gagandeep, packed their bags and moved to the Capital.

``The government accommodation given to us is near Gurgaon, which is very far from AIIMS,'' his mother explains. Therefore, the family took up a room with a common toilet in a shanty near the hospital.

The cramped room with a cooking facility is filled with sketches that Gagandeep has drawn and also shows a photo of him when he was chubbier. ``I turned fat because of the medicine,'' Gagandeep tells you shyly.

But the disease held deeper repercussions for his family.

Gagandeep's father said the family had been torn under the pressure. ``The doctors thought we had given it to him, so they tested us and found us negative,'' he said. ``This does add an element of distrust in our husband-wife relationship.'' No bitterness is directed at Gagandeep, though. ``We can die with him but we cannot leave him,'' his father says.

His father is still bugged by the transfusion trouble. ``The doctors said that it cannot happen in AIIMS as they check their blood,'' he said. ``But they also admit to the window period where the virus does not show up in the test.''

According to a senior official in the hospital's blood bank, no claims of being free of HIV or other infections are made. ``Our blood (sic!) just says that it is `ELISA-negative,'' he said.

The ELISA test is the most basic of tests. The PCR test, western blot test and the P24 test are said to be more sophisticated.

``We are a poor country so we cannot afford to do those tests, like they do abroad. So the blood is vulnerable to infections,'' she said. Their only mode is to encourage voluntary donations and give out a questionnaire, in which, people lie.

``Till now, nobody has ever admitted to have multiple partners,'' she said.

According to Dr Arya, although there have been cases of children contracting hepatitis, this is the first time in his 15-year career when someone has contracted HIV. ``It is very sad,'' he said, ``repeated transfusions often result in such infection transmission.''

``We will treat Gagandeep for HIV after we finish treatment for ALL, ``said Dr Arya. However, Gagandeep may develop full-blown AIDS in a few years, the doctor adds.

In his room, Gagandeep continues to sketch images of God. He got a prize for them on Saturday. Why just images of God?'' ``Because I love him,'' he says.