MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Federal Police in Rio launches probe into HIV-infected organ transplants

Minister Trindade ruled that HIV-infected patients and their contacts should receive full support and specialized care

Brazilian Federal Police in Rio de Janeiro launched an inquiry into the case of six patients receiving HIV-infected organs for transplants, Agência Brasil reported Wednesday. Other institutions already investigating the matter include Rio's Civil Police, the Health Ministry, and the Health Department.

At least six patients were identified as HIV-infected after receiving kidney, liver, heart, and cornea transplants from two HIV-positive people. The organs had been tested by the Dr. Saleme Clinical Pathology Laboratory (PCS) and found not reactive to HIV. However, after these detections authorities started to look for other possible recipients of organs from the same infected donors.

Rio de Janeiro and national hemotherapy services were advised to check any blood donation coming from the same donor or to anyone related to that person during the same period.

In the aftermath of these events, authorities have upped their precautions regarding full traceability, including the identification of batches and immunological window periods, which is the time between exposure to the virus and the production of sufficient antibodies to be detected by tests.

The Health Ministry also insisted that the safety of transplant and blood recipients, as well as the integrity of the National Transplant System and the Blood and Blood Products Network, are absolute priorities.

Last Friday, the Federal Health Ministry classified the transmission of HIV through organ transplants as serious and expressed its unrestricted support for patients and their families. Minister Nísia Trindade ruled that HIV-infected patients and their contacts should receive full support and specialized care.

In the meantime, a Rio de Janeiro court upheld the decision to hold gynecologist Walter Vieira under pre-trial detention as one of the partners of the PCS Lab Saleme laboratory in Nova Iguaçu, in the Baixada Fluminense, investigated for issuing erroneous reports that allowed the transplantation of organs infected with the HIV virus.

Ivanilson Fernandes dos Santos, a technician at the laboratory, and Jacqueline Iris Bacellar de Assis, an employee of the company, who are also involved in the case and who are under arrest, have not yet had a custody hearing.

On Wednesday, the Civil Police arrested laboratory technician Cleber de Oliveira dos Santos, the fourth person investigated for issuing erroneous reports. Thus, all the arrest warrants issued last Monday have been carried out.