Monday, 8 October 2012

Negligence led to death of girl on ART

A minor girl who was on ART died on 2nd Oct 2012, the day she was admitted to RIMS, due to the negligence and denial of second line ART by health care providers, said RK Nolinikanta,Convener Organizing Committee International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Observation, 2012.
Speaking to media persons at a press meet held at Manipur Press Club, RK Nolinikanta said the girl, aged about 17 had been struggling to get second line ART for the last 11 months from State AIDS Clinical Expert Panel (SACEP) but was denied the treatment which led to her death.
The girl was on first line ART since 2001 and from 2004 she got access to first line ART from JNIMS centre. But she started facing health problems since Feb 2011 since her CD4 count decreased to107 cells/cu.mm from 393 cells/cu.mm. Further she was referred to SACEP, a forum which was instituted to provide first line alternative and second line ART at RIMS, for second line treatment on February last year.
Unfortunately, she was compelled to continue the same drug while waiting for SACEP meeting. But even after attending the said meeting for three consecutive times, she was not advised for the Viral Load Test which was important at that very stage. And for the Viral Load Test, the facility was not available at the hospital, so her sample was collected for sending it to Kolkata for the test.
A batch of 10 samples was to be sent to Kolkata but due to negligence of the authorities they failed to send the sample of the said girl, Noliniknata stated.
Nolinikanta further said equipment for viral load test are available at Babina Diagnostic Center so they sent a proposal to MACS to recommend the centre to conduct the test but it was of no use.
He further said SACEP in Manipur comprised of eight clinical experts mostly from RIMS including Deputy Director (care, transport and treatment) MACS and is headed by HOD, Medicine, RIMS.
But there has been lot of complaints and issues against the panel during the last few years, she said. Many people living with HIV and who needed second line ART have come across a number of cases in which treatment is delayed due to SACEP.
President MNP+ L Deepak said the incident is not first of its kind. He had come across cases of People Living with HIV who died waiting for SACEP’s decision for further treatment.
Grandfather of the teenager, Huidrom Nabakishor said doctors of RIMS claimed that her granddaughter died of heart attack. But he disagreed with it and said the death was due to negligence of SACEP. He stated that nobody could escape death but what hurts him the most is the way she died, from denial of second line ART.
http://thepeopleschronicle.in/?p=1970
http://www.poknapham.in/current/Final_Page/Page_7.pdf
http://thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=426100&catid=36
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1121009/jsp/northeast/story_16067189.jsp#.UHQRRq6gmSo

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