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Agence France-Presse

Pakistan said on Sunday 600 people, most of them children, had tested HIV positive in a city in southern Sindh province.
Concerns grew after hundreds of people were allegedly infected by a doctor using a contaminated syringe in Rato Dero city and surrounding villages of Larkana district.
“Some 681 people, of which 537 were children from two to 12 years of age, had been tested positive for HIV until yesterday in Rato Dero,” special health adviser Zafar Mirza said at a press conference in Islamabad.

He said 21,375 people had been screened in Rato Dero, adding “the increase in the number of patients being tested positive for HIV is a matter of grave concern for the government”.
Mirza said the “use of unsafe syringes might be one of the causes for spread of the disease but the government is making all-out efforts to ascertain the exact cause”.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to unveil drastic measures to prevent the disease once we get ascertain the cause of the spread of disease.”




Parents in the area fear their children’s futures have been irreparably harmed after contracting HIV, especially in a country whose masses of rural poor have little understanding of the disease or access to treatment.
Pakistan was long considered a low prevalence country for HIV, but the disease is expanding at an alarming rate, particularly among intravenous drug users and sex workers.
12,000 Chinese blood plasma treatments contaminated with HIV
With about 20,000 new HIV infections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently has the second fastest growing HIV rates across Asia, according to the UN.
Pakistan’s surging population also suffers the additional burden of having insufficient access to quality health care following decades of underinvestment by the state, leaving impoverished, rural communities especially vulnerable to unqualified medical practitioners.


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Pakistan

More than 600 people, mostly children, test positive for HIV in Pakistan city, after doctor allegedly uses contaminated syringe

Pakistani women in Larkana, Sindh province, hold their HIV-infected children. Photo: AFP

epa07578095 Dr. Muzaffar Ghangro, a Pakistani local pediatrician alleged to have been responsible for the HIV outbreak, sits behind bars at a police station in Rato Dero, near Larkana, Pakistan, 03 May 2019 (issued 17 May). Dr. Ghangro was arrested on April 30 on charges of infecting hundreds of patients mostly children at the facility with HIV, for avenging him being affected by HIV, a charge he denied. With about 20,000 new HIV infections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently has the second fastest-growing HIV rates crossed Asia, according to the United Nations. EPA-EFE/WAQAR HUSSAIN

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News

Asia

South Asia

Concerns grew after hundreds of people were allegedly infected by a doctor using a contaminated syringe in a city in southern Singh province


Concerns grew after hundreds of people were allegedly infected by a doctor using a contaminated syringe in a city in southern Sindh province.


Wellness