An 8-year-old boy from Hunan Province is seeking compensation for being infected with HIV while receiving hospital treatment.

According to the health authority of Zhangjiajie City, the boy was confirmed HIV positive in July 2015, after receiving a blood transfusion in January, 2014 when he was seriously injured in a traffic accident.

The authority said although the boy had definitely been infected, it was difficult to determine the exact source and route of the infection.

During a period of 18 months, he was hospitalized eight times in Zhangjiajie People's Hospital, the provincial children's hospital in Changsha and a Shanghai hospital.

He passed HIV screening tests before the hospital operations. However, the boy also spent a considerable amount of time outside the hospitals, which makes ascertaining the precise source of the infection difficult.

In addition to the three hospitals, the co-defendants also include the Zhangjiajie blood station and a biological company that produced the human serum albumin, which the boy received in a transfusion during his first operation.