Pakistan hit by new mass HIV outbreak among children

Telegraph - Pakistan has launched an investigation after dozens of children were infected with HIV at a government-run hospital, amid allegations that contaminated syringes were reused.

At least 78 children contracted HIV at Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital in Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province, said Saeed Ghani, the provincial labour minister.

Strict action would be taken against anyone found responsible, he said.

“We assure the families of the affected children that the Sindh government will not leave them alone to face this ordeal. We will ensure their complete medical treatment and provide every possible support,” he said. “There must have been negligence on someone’s part”.

The investigation into the outbreak, which was first reported in November last year, follows months of demands by the families of the children affected.

The families first sought an independent inquiry but said the government had failed to act, forcing them to approach the Sindh High Court.

On Thursday, the Sindh High Court gave the government a deadline of two weeks to produce a report explaining why the outbreak happened at the hospital, which “owes a statutory duty to provide safe medical treatment”.

Dozens of affected families gathered outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, demanding action against officials and lifelong treatment for their children.

“We have been running from pillar to post in search of justice, but the government has offered us no hope,” said Tariq Mansoor, the petitioner before the Sindh High Court.

Mr Mansoor submitted the names of 200 children whom he says contracted HIV after contaminated syringes were allegedly reused at the hospital.

The protesting families also claimed that more than 200 children had been infected and that at least nine had died.

In the petition, Mr Mansoor argued that the authorities had failed to discharge their statutory and constitutional obligations by not conducting an independent inquiry, prosecuting those responsible, and ensuring comprehensive screening and treatment of affected children.

Mr Mansoor said the reuse of disposable syringes amounts to criminal negligence and has endangered public health.

In April, three hospitals in Karachi reported a sharp increase in the paediatric HIV admissions over the last nine months.

At the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre (SIDH&RC), admissions increased from10 HIV-positive children in 2024 to 70 in 2025.

A further 30 children have been admitted so far this year, most of whom had previously received treatment at Valika Hospital.

Of the 894 HIV cases registered across Sindh between January and March this year, 329 were in children, according to the province’s health ministry.

In April, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) warned that rising HIV infections among children in Sindh pointed to “major failures” in infection control and regulation.

It said unsafe practices, including the reuse of needles in unauthorised clinics, remained a serious public health concern and warned the reported cases could represent “merely the tip of the iceberg.”

Pakistan has reported multiple healthcare-associated HIV outbreaks in recent years.

The largest occurred in April 2019, in Ratodero in Sindh, where reused syringes and needles in the town’s private clinics appeared to have spread the virus in children being given intra-venous drips for routine ailments.

By June that year, more than 800 children had tested positive in the town of 300,000. The town then slipped out of the global headlines as the world wrestled with the Covid-19 pandemic. But the cases have kept coming.

A subsequent WHO investigation concluded that the repeated use of contaminated needles was the principal driver of the outbreak.

The problem extends beyond Sindh.

In late 2024, a government-run hospital in Taunsa, Punjab, also reported a surge in paediatric HIV cases.

A subsequent BBC investigation found that unsafe clinical practices had continued months after the hospital was first linked to the outbreak, with at least 331 children testing positive between November 2024 and October 2025.

The United Nations estimates a total of 310,000 people had HIV in 2023 in Pakistan, up from 67,000 in 2010. But screening is minimal and the true figure could be far higher.