Members of the Aam Admi Party gathered outside State health minister C. Vijaya Baskar’s home for the second consecutive day on Monday and waited for over an hour, demanding to see him.
They have alleged that 16 patients contracted hepatitis C from a dialysis machine at Government Stanley Hospital, and want the minister to take action. The party is demanding the 16 patients be compensated and the erring health officials penalised. The party wants all dialysis patients from May onwards to be tested for the infection.
Relatives of the patients, all of whom were awaiting kidney transplants, have maintained they had earlier tested negative for the virus but all tested positive on August 18. Hospital officials said the incubation period for the virus is about six months and that the patients could have contracted it earlier.