Fifty-six children suffering from thalassaemia have got infected with HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C after receiving blood transfusion at a government-run hospital in the western Indian state of Rajasthan's Jodhpur town, local media reported Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
At least 56 out of 130 thalassaemic children, registered with Jodhpur's Marwar Thalassaemic Society tested positive for HIV and hepatitis after undergoing blood transfusion at Umaid hospital in Jodhpur, The Times of India quoted a source as saying.
Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad termed it as a case of negligence and said that the state government was responsible in the case.
"It is a case of negligence. It is the responsibility of the state government to take proper precautions," he told the media.
In the last one and a half years, at least eight thalassaemic children in the city were found to be HIV positive while 46 others were infected by hepatitis B virus.