The Nigerian government on Wednesday dismissed three senior officials at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (Luth), where a baby was infected with HIV/Aids.
Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said Luth’s chief medical director, chief medical laboratory scientist and an official in haematology department of the hospital had all been sacked over the incident.
Other officials at the hospital were also sanctioned, the minister told journalists at a news conference.
Baby Eniola was infected earlier this year with HIV/Aids ”in the course of an exchange blood transfusion at Luth”, the minister said.
The minister said the government had uncovered ”administrative and managerial lapses” in the handling of the case and would cover the full cost of the baby’s treatment.
Luth was established in 1962 and it is the top medical establishment in Lagos.
Nigeria has an HIV/Aids rate of 4,4% of the 130-million population and about 3,5-million Nigerians live with the disease, officials said.
The government made HIV/Aid treatment free from the beginning of this year in an effort to give more people access to drugs. — Sapa-AFP