Health officials in southeast China’s Fujian Province have confirmed that a 5-year-old girl contracted HIV due to a blood transfusion four years ago.

They have ordered the hospital involved and the center which supplied the blood to give her “humanitarian compensation.”

The girl was just 8 months old when she underwent surgery for congenital heart disease at the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital in May 2010.

She tested positive for the virus during an examination in September 2014.

Her parents said the girl, nicknamed Maomao, was a sickly child and prone to illness. But her condition worsened in August last year when had came down with a fever that lasted 17 days.

Maomao’s medical fees spiralled to 300,000 yuan (US$48,350) and her family are now in debt.

Her parents believed the operation was to blame and had demanded an investigation.

Yang Minhong, an official with the committee, said one of the eight donors whose blood was used during the operation had HIV/AIDS, but didn’t know it at the time.

The blood was accepted as the donor was in a “window period,” Yang said, a two to four-week period after infection during which a test can’t detect the virus.

The hospital and the blood center are to begin negotiations with Maomao’s parents regarding compensation.

“If it does not work out. Maomao’s family can file a law suit,” said Yang.

Blood from the infected donor was also transfused into two other patients, Yang said, and efforts were being made to locate them.

The donation was a one-off on March 31, 2010.