Mother unaware of HIV condition
A doctor in Yibin, Southwest China's Sichuan Province has been fired and stripped of her physician qualification after a newborn baby was infected with HIV because hospital staff failed to notify that the mother was HIV-positive.
The doctor, surnamed Liu, was found guilty of negligence, violating standard professional procedures and rules, and was dismissed from Yibin's maternal and child care service center, Hongxing News, a media outlet affiliated with the Chengdu Economic Daily, reported Tuesday.
Liu was stripped of her physician license and permanently banned from working in the medical industry, Wei Qiang, an officer at Yibin's health and family planning commission, was quoted by Hongxing News as saying on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the commission said on its Sina Weibo account on Monday that they are investigating the maternal and child care service center, where the mother received prenatal examinations.
The woman, surnamed Zeng, underwent an early pregnancy test for the first time at the center with Liu in July 2016. The result, released a day after the test, showed that she had syphilis and was HIV-positive, said the commission.
Liu tried to call Zeng but failed to reach her.
Zeng came to the center for another test in late July supervised by a doctor surnamed Tang, who failed to examine her earlier test results.
Since then, Zeng underwent more pregnancy tests at this center with four different doctors, none of whom read the results of her initial test.
Zeng only found out she was HIV-positive while staying at the hospital for pre-surgery in February 2017, and the results were only given to her by Yibin's center for disease control and prevention on March 2, 2017.
Zeng's baby has also been diagnosed as HIV-positive and syphilis positive, according to the commission's Weibo statement.
Zeng's husband told news site thepaper.cn that the baby's treatment costs 700 yuan ($101) to 1,000 yuan per day, which has wiped out their savings.
The commission has started an investigation after Zeng's husband went to the commission and filed a complaint against the center on February 27. Hongxing News reported that Liu was rehired after retirement and had been working at the center for nearly 40 years.
Although such cases are not common in China, hospitals, especially those in small cities, should strengthen their regulation and management on medical workers to avoid similar tragedies, Zhou Zijun, a professor at Peking University's School of Public Health, told the Global Times.
Zhou added that China only allows hospitals to directly notify HIV-positive patients to protect their privacy.
