Kottayam: Close on the heels of a nine-year-old cancer afflicted girl contracting HIV from the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram probably owing to blood transfusion, two others patients are feared to have been infected with the virus.

Police is collecting details of the donors who gave blood at the RCC.

The centre authorities and police have zeroed on 49 persons for investigation.

Meanwhile, the high-level team led by Joint Directorate of Medical Education (DME) Sreekumari has given a clean chit to the RCC.

The Kerala AIDS Control Society and the RCC had given a similar report to the government. The report said the virus might have been transmitted through the blood which was transfused during the window period.

RCC said it had no mechanism to detect the virus during the window period which is the one between the onset of HIV infection and the appearance of detectable antibodies to the virus in a person. The window period is about three to four weeks.