EAST BAY, Calif., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- An East Bay, Calif., couple has filed suit against Alameda County and several medical providers after learning their adopted child was infected with HIV.
It was only after her adoption was completed -- a year and a half after they began caring for her -- that the couple learned the child they loved was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The San Jose Mercury News said if the county really failed to test for HIV, then it violated protocol that calls for HIV testing when certain risk factors are present. The known drug use of the child's birth mother qualifies as one such factor.
However, even if the county tested the child for HIV, it failed to follow its policy that states caregivers must be told when a child is infected with HIV or at risk for the virus.
What is clear is that Baby J, as she is called in court documents, spent the first three years of her life without receiving treatment, which pediatricians say can be critical to the long-term health of an HIV-infected child. Additionally, her adopted family was unwittingly exposed to the virus.
