My regular reading on ProMedMail served as a stern reminder about the high value of basic quality control processes in any area of health care. It would appear that in West Bengal, India, hundreds of people may be at risk of infection from un-tested blood transfusions. It is not that the blood banks there totally lost the plot & failed to test, no it's more insidious and depressing than that.
It appears that a 'well connected' family business supplied absurdly cheap HIV, Hepatatis, and maybe other testing kits to the State's Health department. To quote at what would appear to be 50% to 10% of their competitor's prices, the company decided to supply expired kits. Being past their 'Use By' date, it has been found that many kits, if not all, were not functional, and showed a negative, or 'non-infected' outcome, when the blood being tested was not.
Neeldess to say, the brothers who managed this company have been charged with numerous things, including "Actions leading to the spread of epidemic disease" and an investigation has begun. The youngest brother is not yet detained, and while I wish him no ill-will specifically, I am sickened by what his company has done, presumably in the search for higher profit, and hope he makes himself available to answer police questions sooner rather than later.
There is another side to this tragedy though, and one that those who work in many parts of the health industry would find even more disturbing. After all, test kits, like anything made by human hands, are not always perfect. It is therefor incumbent on all of us to be sure that things such as quality control are not forgotten. If an expiry date is not visible, one does not assume the item is in date, and regular tests must be undertaken, with known positive & negative samples, to see if tests are providing expected results. Health departments should not only encourage, but support with information, and even money if necessary for these practices to become standard where ever life saving, or health protecting tests are undertaken.
Greedy business men are not the only guilty parties, if it is found that indeed infective blood was transfused.
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