“Maa, dekho, this news is about me,” says the seven-year-old, rushing to his mother. Scrolling through YouTube on her phone, he had paused at a local channel reporting that five children with thalassemia had tested positive for HIV at Chaibasa Sadar Hospital in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district. “Nahin, nahin, babu,” says the mother, taking the phone away. But he knew. From the conversations his parents have been having with doctors and with each other, he knows he has a “nayi bimari (new illness)”, and that friends and relatives look at him differently. In October, the Jharkhand government confirmed that five children with thalassemia were infected with HIV — all traced to transfusions at the blood bank attached to the 500-bed Chaibasa Sadar Hospital, the biggest health facility in the district. With everyone from the hospital staff to Health Minister Irfan Ansari admitting to the lapse, at least five officials, including the Civil Surgeon and the blood bank staff, were suspended and the government announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each of the families. …