HC directs govt to bear treatment of 9-yr-old HIV child

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today directed the Central Government to bear the cost of treatment of a 9-year-old child, who was allegedly inflicted with HIV during a blood transfusion in the Safdarjung Hospital.

Justice B D Ahmed asked the Centre to admit the child in the Safdarjung hospital for treatment.

''The government should bear all the expenses, including the treatment of the patient,'' said the order.

Naseem Ahmed, a resident of a village near Ranchi in Jharkhand, had filed a petition seeking direction to the government for free treatment and other expenses of his child-- Faizan, who had been under treatmentfor anemia for the past five years.

Ahmed's Counsel Sugriv Dubey in the petition said Faizan was under treatment at a hospital in Ranchi for anemia. He was referred to the Safdarjung Hospital for further treatment in 2002.

The petition alleged that the child had been given HIV-positive blood without scanning during the blood transfusion in the government hospital.

UNI