HIV crisis

PAKISTAN’s presence among countries with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in Asia is a matter of shame. Globally, the virus is found in drug addicts, sex workers and other high-risk sections. What makes our crisis more distressing is the victims’ profile: children and low-risk groups who have been infected because of a broken healthcare system. Sindh’s health department has said that the necessary measures were in place to curb HIV’s spread, including 44 antiretroviral therapy centres in the province. Meanwhile, a Senate committee wants the complete findings of the Sindh Healthcare Commission’s inspection of Karachi’s Valika Hospital, where nearly 100 children tested positive for HIV due to reused syringes, infected vials and unsafe transfusions. The findings will help the authorities decide whether the facility, one of the many hospitals operating without a SHCC licence, deserves a permit.

Hospital fiascos here surface with troubling regularity on the same pattern as the 2019 Ratodero eruption. According to reports, the number of children who have contracted HIV through unsafe medical care is 7,500. Overall, 25,000 people are believed to have died after being infected by the virus. Poor diagnosis delays treatment. Immediate action should involve the screening of exposed people, counselling and lifelong antiretroviral therapy. The privacy of all carriers must be maintained, with compensation for transmissions caused by healthcare lapses. Aggressive steps should include regular hospital spot checks, blood-screening guidelines, steady stocks of auto-reusable syringes, and suspension of licences of erring medical outlets. The spread of HIV is a full-blown national emergency that demands comprehensive, sustained healthcare reform. Staunch political will and a cohesive social response are vital to containing this preventable virus. Hospitals cannot become incubators of disease. Public trust is the first casualty of systems that, instead of curing patients, expose them to danger.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026

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