Six patients who received transplanted organs in Rio de Janeiro were infected with HIV. According to the State Department of Health, the case is “unprecedented and unacceptable”.
The infections occurred after tests performed by a private laboratory, PCS. The laboratory was contracted by the Health Foundation, under the responsibility of the State Department of Health to serve the transplant program in the state and did not detect the presence of the virus. PCS had its services suspended immediately after the case was discovered and was closed as a precaution, according to the Secretariat.
The Ministry of Health ordered the National Audit Department of the SUS to urgently conduct an audit of the transplant system in Rio de Janeiro, and to investigate any irregularities in the contracting of the laboratory, among other measures.
Civil police officers in Rio de Janeiro carried out an operation to investigate the suspicion that PCS laboratory was issuing false reports. The laboratory is accused of issuing reports that said the two donors did not have HIV, when in fact they were positive for the virus. This led to the HIV infection of six people who received the organs.
One of the partners of the PCS Lab Saleme laboratory, Walter Viera, was arrested. He said in a statement to the police that the preliminary result made by the laboratory’s internal investigation indicates signs of human error in the transcription of the results of two HIV tests.
PCS Lab Saleme highlighted that, in the last 12 months, it has performed more than 3 million tests and that, since December 1, when it began providing services to the Health Foundation of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, it has purchased at least 900 tests for diagnosing HIV in blood samples from organ donors, following recommendations from the Ministry of Health and the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
The laboratory also reaffirmed that it will provide the necessary support to the victims “as soon as it has official access to their identities; and that it is at the disposal of the authorities investigating the case”.
Source: Agência Brasil