UP quack leaves 40 infected with HIV

Lucknow: At least 40 people have been infected with HIV in UP’s Unnao district in the last 10 months allegedly after a quack used a common syringe to administer injections, an official said on Tuesday.

An FIR has been registered by Bangarmau police against the culprit, Rajendra Kumar, who is absconding. The Yogi Adityanath government has also ordered a probe.

The matter came to light after the health department launched a probe following reports of high number of HIV cases in the area.

Kumar charged his patients a fee of `10, with medicines, and carried his “mobile “clinic on a bicycle from village to village. The youngest of his victim is a six-year-old while many of the patients are in their 70s, officials said.

Health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh said, “Since Unnao is a transit point, HIV carriers, including truck and bus drivers, are likely to come in. We are mapping truck drivers who come there and offer treatment to others.”

The 40 HIV positivepatients have now been referred to antiretroviral therapy centre in Kanpur for treatment, said an official.

According to sources, some people had filed a complaint against the quack in the CMO office a few months ago but no action was taken.

An official said, “Earlier 21 persons had tested HIV positive but the number has gone up to 40 now. If more tests are carried out in the surrounding villages, we fear that the number may go up substantially.”

In the past five years, Kanpur and Unnao had reported only one HIV positive case.

Chief medical officer Dr S.P. Chaudhary said that the matter came to light after the health department launched a probe following reports of “high number of HIV cases” in the area.

“A two-member committee had which visited villages in Bangarmau to investigate the reasons behind the increase in such cases”, he said.

The team visited Premganj and Chakmirpur areas of Bangarmau and filed a report, based on which screening camps were held at three places (in Bangarmau) on January 24, 25 and 27.

In these camps, 566 people were examined of whom 21 were found to be infected with HIV. Later more people tested HIV positive.

Unnao was in the news in December last year, when the district administration suspended the chief medical officer after reports surfaced that 32 cataract patients were operated upon in torchlight for want of steady electricity supply at a state-run facility. The government later suspended CMO Rajendra Prasad and also removed the in-charge of Nawabganj community health centre.