From Taunsa, to Ratodero and now Karachi. It seems like there is not a town or city left in Pakistan where the country’s children are safe from HIV, one of the most dangerous diseases in the world. Last week, the Sindh labour minister reportedly confirmed that at least 78 children had been infected with HIV at Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital in Karachi. Reports say that this allegedly is due to the reuse of contaminated syringes. Pakistan has seen many such HIV scandals in recent years, with children basically having their lives ruined before they have even properly begun. It is almost always because this country’s healthcare system seems unable to fulfil a very basic requirement: ensuring that syringes are used in a safe and medically appropriate manner. Last week, the prime minister ordered a nationwide ban on the manufacturing, sale and use of substandard syringes, directing the authorities concerned to launch a comprehensive crackdown on unsafe injection practices. He also ordered strict legal action against hospitals, healthcare professionals and individuals found responsible for criminal negligence or violations that contribute to the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other blood-borne infections. While it is encouraging to see that the highest authorities have clearly taken note of this problem, one must ask why it has taken major HIV outbreaks to reach this point and why syringes were not being used in a safe manner in the first place.
These are not just isolated scandals either. They tie into what appears to be becoming a full-blown HIV crisis in Pakistan. Last month, a task force constituted on the directives of the PM recommended an independent evaluation and restructuring of Pakistan’s National and Provincial AIDS Control Programmes along with a nationwide HIV spill-over survey, warning that the country’s true HIV burden remains uncertain and that transmission may no longer be confined to traditional high-risk groups. Worryingly, the task force report says that Pakistan has an estimated 369,000 people living with HIV, but only about 84,400 are formally registered while nearly 60,789 are receiving antiretroviral treatment, suggesting that a substantial number of infections remain outside the treatment and surveillance system. If true, this might become a recipe for the disease to spread even further.
That simply cannot be allowed to happen. Pakistan’s healthcare system is already under severe strain and problems like the spread of HIV or AIDS but also other long-term health issues like polio are indicative of that strain. However, unlike with polio, the problem here does not appear to be that medical treatment does not reach vulnerable children. It is children being let down by the very hospitals and healthcare system meant to protect them. This is inexcusable. Thankfully, the task force’s proposed survey would examine healthcare-associated transmission linked to unsafe injections and blood transfusions, estimate undiagnosed and unreported infections, assess HIV prevalence in prisons and other vulnerable settings, investigate paediatric HIV clusters and identify geographical hotspots of transmission. It is hoped that this will be a meaningful step towards stopping HIV outbreaks among children while allowing health authorities to get a better handle on the disease overall.
Editorial Published in The News, July 7th, 2026.
