Infant received breast milk from HIV carrier

A hospital nurse on Saturday accidentally fed a 4-month-old infant with breast milk from a young woman who was diagnosed as HIV positive. The infant, who was hospitalized in the children’s ward of Petah Tikva’s Schneider Hospital, was issued preventive medication against the deadly virus after the mistake was discovered.

A nurse at the hospital had mistakenly given the baby a bottle of breast milk belonging to a different mother, a young woman whose child was also hospitalized there. The baby’s mother reportedly noticed that the bottle label did not match the name of her child and notified hospital personnel.

After the mix-up was discovered, the second woman was taken for a series of tests in order to determine whether she carried any infectious diseases that could cause harm to the baby.

The test results, which arrived Monday, revealed that the woman was a carrier of the HIV retrovirus. The woman hadn’t previously been diagnosed as HIV positive and was unaware that she was a carrier.

Following the diagnosis, the child was immediately issued post-exposure prophylaxis treatment for HIV. The baby will continue treatment for the next couple of months, hospital officials said.

The officials stressed the baby was most likely not infected, as no case of a one-time breast-milk feeding from an HIV-positive-diagnosed woman has ever resulted in the virus being passed on.

The hospital management informed the Health Ministry of the case. It is unclear whether the hospital or any of its personnel will face charges of medical negligence.