Saeed Al-Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH – The Ministry of Health has sacked seven senior officials involved in the case of HIV-tainted blood transfusion given to 13-year-old Reham Al-Hakami. According to a ministry announcement Sunday, the director general, the medical director, the directors of laboratory and blood bank and the technical supervisor of blood bank at Jazan General Hospital were sacked. The director and the technical supervisor of the blood bank were also fined SR10,000 each. The coordinator of the AIDS program and the director of labs and blood banks in the Directorate General of Health Affairs in Jazan were also sacked. The lab technician, who was directly involved in the tainted blood transfusion, was stripped of his license and sacked form work, the ministry announcement said. The ministry also stopped blood donations at Jazan General Hospital till proper measures are taken to ensure safer blood donations. New mechanism has been put in place at the lab and blood bank in the Jazan Directorate General for Health Affairs to prevent another such incident. The ministry took these actions based on the recommendation of a specialist committee formed to investigate the case. Those involved in the case will also face the Medical Health Authority which will decide further punishments. The donor of the HIV-tainted blood will be referred to the appropriate authorities. Reham, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, underwent a blood transfusion last Tuesday at Jazan General Hospital. When the technician discovered the girl may have been given infected blood, the hospital sent an ambulance to the girl's home and rushed her to the King Fahd Central Hospital in Jazan. In a press statement issued Thursday, Jazan Health Affairs offered fresh details on how the girl contracted the HIV virus through a mistaken blood transfusion procedure and apologized to her family. “The Ministry of Health formed a committee to start an immediate investigation into the incident and bring the responsible technician to justice,” the statement said. The supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights' Jazan Branch said the society will demand that all officials at the Ministry of Health and Jazan Health Affairs found to be responsible for the grave medical mistake are punished. Meanwhile, Reham was airlifted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) in Riyadh at the behest of the Minister of Health. She is now at the hospital spending most of her time exchanging messages on WhatsApp with her friends back home in Jazan. Reham, worried and frightened due to the twin affliction of sickle cell anemia, which she has had since she was eight months old, and HIV, is homesick and wants to return to her village. Reham had blood transfusions twice a year until she was eight years old. Her condition stabilized at that stage and she was put on medications. She has lost two of her brothers in the past to sickle cell anemia.
