"There is a serious problem which, in this tragic case, must make us think of more effective ways of dealing with it," Gennady Onishchenko, head of the State Health Inspectorate, said Wednesday, commenting on the situation in Voronezh, where a pregnant woman contracted HIV through a blood transfusion.
He said all blood preparations, donor organs and tissue should stay in quarantine banks for at least three months, after which they must be tested for HIV before use.
Russia's Voronezh Regional Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal investigation Wednesday on charges that workers at a local hospital breached regulations on blood transfusions and infected 208 people with HIV.
If convicted, those responsible at the hospital could be sentenced to five years in prison.
The Regional Administration Public Health Department denied media reports earlier that HIV-positive blood was used in transfusions.
