AP: Men inject women with HIV +ve blood

Guntur, Dec 4: In two separate incidents, women were injected with HIV positive blood in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In Guntur district a 17-year-old girl was injected with HIV positive blood by her own brother-in-law. Reason for such a gruesome measure was the girl's denial to marry him. Ravindra Prabhakar decided to infect her when she spurned his advances. "He kept harassing me, telling me he will kill me, said the victim.

In a prior incident ten days before a husband injected his wife with HIV positive blood suspecting infidelity. Sources said that both the victims have been put on anti-retrovial (ART) drugs, if administered within 48 hours may prevent infection.

However Doctors said that it may well be atleast 6-8 weeks before they can confirm the infection in the victims. Health Officials of Guntur said that they are unaware how the accused sort HIV infected blood. "We do not know when the criminal collected the sample because the AIDS virus cannot survive in dry blood and may die within a few minutes, so we are waiting till further investigation," said Dr Phani Bhushan, Medical Superintendent, Guntur Government hospital.

Guntur district alone has over 50,000 HIV patients, one of the highest in Andhra Pradesh. Police sources said that the accused might have collected blood from unsuspecting patients.

However they denied the report that there is an organised network supplying infected blood in Andhra Pradesh.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)