KATH blood saga – CID begins investigations

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is helping a committee set up by the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) to investigate an alleged sale of contaminated blood to a patient.

The committee, which also comprises of representatives from the Food and Drugs Authority, the National AIDS control programme and the National Public Health Reference Lab was constituted after a post went viral on social media about the alleged sale of the HIV-Syphilis infested blood by KATH to a patient from a private hospital.

In a Facebook post, Addo-Kwabla Evans, accused KATH of selling two units of HIV-Syphilis infested blood to his mother. The state of the contaminated blood was discovered after screening of the blood units by the Kean Health Center, a private medical center in Kumasi.

The blood was subsequently declared unsafe for transfusion after the private hospital determined the presence of HIV and Syphilis pathogens in the blood units.

A press release issued by the Public Relations Officer of KATH, Kwame Frimpong, on Saturday, 1 December 2018, said : “…the allegation under reference is only based on alleged screening test done on the blood at a private clinic and not on confirmatory tests as required under the protocol for handling such cases”.

It added that the Ghana Police Service has been invited to “ensure the integrity of the investigations into the matter”.

The Chief Executive Officer of KATH, has, therefore, entreated “the patient and family to release the blood units in question to the investigating team or the Police for further and confirmatory test in line with established protocols”.

The release further indicated that “KATH has a track record of stringent blood testing protocols and maintains the highest standard for blood safety”.