Mohamed Amin was barely 8 years old when he died of complications linked to HIV. The little boy suffered from recurring fevers, begging his family to let him sleep outside in the rain for relief. Her sister Asma is still alive, but carrying the same burden, that of HIV. Like them, 331 children tested HIV positive between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025 in Taunsa Sharif, a city in the heart of Pakistan. Behind this “epidemic”, a human culprit, criminal medical negligence within the city hospital.
These children, who were visiting the health establishment to treat an infection or a simple flu, find themselves condemned to living with this virus all their lives. Various testimonies report serious failings on the part of hospital staff, using the same needles and syringes several times and on several patients.
An investigation carried out by the BBC revealed this health scandal to the world. By embedding hidden cameras within the establishment, the journalists managed to prove that, despite the government’s promises, the situation has not changed and that no measures have been taken. Their cameras filmed doctors reusing the same syringes to draw up drugs and inject them.
A culture of injection
Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist and one of Pakistan’s leading infectious disease specialists, told the BBC that “even if a new needle is attached, the back part, which we call the body of the syringe, contains the virus, so transmission will occur even with a new needle”. Despite this overwhelming evidence, those responsible take no responsibility. Doctor Qasim Buzdar, working at Taunsa Sharif hospital, calls scandal and manipulation.
In Pakistan there is a real injection culture. Patients are convinced that they can only be cured if treatment is administered using a syringe. Staff often give in to this belief and inject whatever can be injected. Disastrous stock management and lack of resources push caregivers to reuse their equipment, and infections spread.
This case is not isolated. Already in 2019 the town of Ratodero, in the Larkana district, suffered similar contamination with more than 1,500 children affected. The scenario is the same as in Taunsa Sharif: an alert is given, a few officials are suspended or transferred elsewhere… and then nothing.
Near her brother’s grave, Asma confides in BBC journalists. She works hard at school because she made a radical decision. She wants to transform her pain into a vocation: “When I grow up, I want to become a doctor“, she announces.
