By IANS
Bhubaneswar : A woman in Orissa has claimed a compensation of Rs.1 million from the state government for being wrongly diagnosed HIV-positive when she was pregnant.
Manjubala Das, a resident of Odisio village in Jagatsinghpur district, said she had filed a case in the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum.
The 25-year-old said she and her husband Prashant had in June 2007 gone to the government hospital at Jagatsinghpur, 140 km from here, as she was pregnant.
The two then went in for the mandatory HIV tests. Their blood samples were sent to the district voluntary confidential counselling and testing centre (VCCTC), Manjula told IANS. According to the test results, she was HIV positive while her husband was not.
Hospital authorities told them not to come to the centre for delivery, fearing that the virus may spread.
The couple then went to the Sri Ram Chandra Medical College Hospital at Cuttack, which also confirmed that Manjula was HIV positive.
The two were ostracised by villagers and their family members, said Pitambara Panda, Manjula’s lawyer.
On Jan 13, the woman was denied admission to the district hospital for delivery. She gave birth to a baby girl at a government hospital at Balikuda, 15 km from Jagatsinghpur town.
Manjula and Prashant did not give up and went in for tests again at the Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati Medical College Hospital in Berhampur. This time, the tests showed her to be HIV negative, much to their relief.
“The lady suffered mental depression due to wrong diagnosis by two medical centres,” Panda said.