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At least six children have been found HIV positive in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna allegedly due to a contaminated blood transfusion at a district hospital during treatment for thalassemia, officials said on Tuesday (Dec 16, 2025).
The children, officials said, include five boys under the age of 11 and a nine-year-old girl who are receiving blood transfusions at the hospital. While the children tested positive between January and May 2025, the matter has come to light now, prompting state authorities to order an investigation.
Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla, who is in charge of health, said he has sought a report on the matter.
“We will be able to reveal anything when the report comes in. It is also being investigated whether the blood transfusion took place in other hospitals as well or only in the government hospital,” Mr Shukla said while talking to reporters.
Satna Collector Satish Kumar S. said that an internal investigation has been initiated at the hospital level in the matter.
“We have also informed the state administration. The children were given transfusions in various hospitals, including the district hospital as well as in Jabalpur and also in private hospitals. But if anyone is found responsible, strict action will be taken against them,” Kumar said, adding that the children were reported positive during screening from January to May.
Dr. Manoj Shukla, superintendent and medical officer and civil surgeon of the district hospital, said that the children are being treated for thalassemia for a long time as they require regular blood transfusions.
“Since they have had several transfusions in the past, they fall into the high-risk category for HIV. So the head of the AIDS program here ran additional tests on them and they started treatment immediately,” said Dr. Shukla claimed the children were “fine now”.
Dr Shukla also said that the parents of one of the children were already HIV positive.
While the source of the infection is yet to be revealed, the CMO said that apart from blood transfusion, the children could also have been infected by any intravenous injection or contaminated syringe.
“All protocols are followed in our blood bank and donors are properly tested and blood is given for transfusion only if they are negative for all diseases. But there remains a chance that if a person is in the very early stage of infection, it will not be detected in the tests. This will be revealed only after a few months,” he said, adding that the donors whose blood was infected with these children had not yet been called for testing.
“One of the children received blood more than 125 times. So it is difficult to trace so many donors and convince them to come for examination,” he said.
However, a senior doctor at the district hospital told The Hindu that some blood bank officials did not alert the hospital management even though the children had tested positive about four months ago.
“We only learned about it from the local media,” said the doctor, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress has hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over the issue and demanded Mr Shukla’s resignation.
“The health minister is not capable of running the department. He should resign. A case of murder should be filed against those responsible for the Satna incident,” Congress MLA and former state government minister Sachin Yadav said.
Published – 16 Dec 2025 21:59 IST
