HYDERABAD: Contaminated syringes and blood products, blood transfusion and dialysis are inflicting scores of people with the dreaded HIV as they walk out hospitals, diagnostic labs and blood banks in Telangana.State health department officials said 72 people had contracted the virus in 2017, while 100 were afflicted with it in 2016 through reuse and exposure to contaminated syringes, blood transfusion and exposure to blood products.An official, however, privately admitted that the figures could be much more as several patients remain unaccounted due to poor screening methods as well as HIV infection through dialysis, which is not taken into account in state figures.“Patients, who undergo haemo dialysis, are highly vulnerable to hepatitis C, B and HIV, if adequate aseptic measures are not in place during dialysis. There is a high percentage of patients battling these deadly infections in the city,” pointed out Mujtaba Hasan Askari , president Helping Hand Foundation , an NGO which works with HIV patients.Recently, over 50 people were found to be infected with HIV in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh due to use of unsafe medical devices. Experts say mushrooming of blood banks, improper screening of blood and lack of checks were to be blamed for the spread of HIV.“The Telangana State Aids Control Society (TSACS) data may not reflect the true picture of new cases being infected through syringes and blood transfusion. Also, the fact that blood transfusion standards are not maintained as many private blood banks have mushroomed. Absence of checks, regulations and safety protocols make matters worse,” Askari pointed out.Interestingly, the latest and most-updated technology available to detect HIV, nucleic acid test (NAT), is not available in majority of the blood banks in the state.Currently, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test as well as manual screening is carried out in majority of blood banks in the state, but these test have their limitations.“For ELISA test to detect HIV, the virus should have been active for at least 40 days before the test. Also, the manual testing method (for ELISA third generation) has the possibility of the virus not getting detected at all due to human error. Though NAT is the safest (can detect the virus if it has been in the body for seven days), it is a costly affair,” T Vishnu Vardhan, chief executive officer, NTR Trust Blood Bank , said.Of 136 blood banks in the city, 43 facilities, including state-run blood banks, were being supported by National Aids Control Organization (NACO). And, less than five actually conduct NAT. NACO currently supplies the third generation manual ELISA kit to supported blood banks. “The ELISA test is followed by almost all government as well as private sector blood banks. While one possibility is that the basic antibody test that we are doing does not detect HIV as the antibody has not yet been developed, the possibility of erroneous blood banks, negligence and a small possibility of re-use of syringes cannot be ruled out,” Dr V Rajasekhar, project director, TSACS, said. “So far, no incident of blood banks totally avoiding blood screening has come to our notice,” he added.Also, once blood banks discover that a patient was HIV positive, they should inform, counsel and inform the TSACS and send the patient to the Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) in the district. “Usually, the blood banks do not take it to the logical end when they find a patient is positive, they tend to wash their hands off,” say insiders.