More AIDS tainted blood; boy dead in Dangriga

It was a story that shocked and horrified the nation: three innocent Belizeans, two of them children, infected with HIV-tainted blood through transfusions at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Unbelievably, tonight that same terrifying story is emerging from the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga. While the Ministry of Health refuses to confirm or deny the report, News 5 has been reliably informed that a young boy also received a HIV-tainted blood transfusion sometime in April of 2001, about the same time as the previously reported deadly error. Whether or not the boy and his family were immediately informed of his condition remains unclear, but in early September of this year, the child succumbed to the inevitably fatal disease. We understand that an investigation has been launched and initial findings suggest that human error is to blame. Belizean officials are to get help later this month from a representative of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, CAREC, in Trinidad to determine what broke down in the system and caused this tragedy. While the Ministry of Health has maintained that it reviewed and overhauled its policies on the handling of blood after the accidental infections at the K.H.M.H., this fourth case highlights the possibility that other people could also have been given bad blood prior to the procedural changes, and not know it. In the April 2001 incident, three people: an infant, a six year old girl, and a mother of five were given unscreened blood which later tested positive for HIV. The baby and woman later died of unrelated illnesses, while the girl, now seven, lives with her family; all trying their best to cope with both the disease and the stigma that invariably surrounds it.