HIV kids case: Gujarat HC seeks fresh affidavit

The Gujarat high court has asked the state health secretary and the local police inspector to file a fresh affidavit in connection with the incident at Junagadh civil hospital in which 23 children were infected with HIV during blood transfusion. A high court bench issued this direction in response to a PIL filed by advocate Girish Das seeking action against the authorities of the Junagadh civil hospital.

Earlier, Dr Govind Dayalu, chief district medical surgeon of Junagadh general hospital had filed an affidavit before the court stating that the 23 children were not regular patients who came for blood transfusion to the hospital. They could have got the infection from some other source provided by other healthcare providers, Dr Dayalu had said in his affidavit.

However, when the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, the bench accepted the argument tendered by the counsel for the PIL that the affidavit should not be take on record as Dr Dayalu himself is the accused in the case that was registered at the local police station.

A couple of months back, 23 thalassemic kids came to know that they were infected with HIV. These kids were among 100 children across Junagadh district who regularly came to the hospital for blood transfusion. One of the HIV-infected children recently died.