At least 78 children have reportedly contracted HIV at Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital, a government-run facility in Pakistan's Sindh province, amid allegations that disposable syringes were reused during treatment, according to a report by UK-based newspaper The Telegraph. The outbreak has triggered months of family protests and a petition before the Sindh High Court, which has directed authorities to explain the cause of infections within two weeks.

Scale of the Outbreak

While The Telegraph report cites at least 78 confirmed child infections, a petition filed before the Sindh High Court alleges a far wider toll — claiming that more than 200 children contracted HIV after disposable syringes were allegedly reused at the hospital. Families of affected children have further claimed that at least nine children have died, though officials have not confirmed those figures.

The petition characterises the reuse of disposable syringes as criminal negligence and accuses authorities of failing both to investigate the incident and to ensure proper treatment for affected children. The outbreak was first reported in November last year.

Families Approach the Courts

Months of protests by affected families preceded the legal intervention. Families allege that authorities consistently refused to order an independent inquiry into the outbreak, prompting them to approach the Sindh High Court. The court has now directed the government to submit a detailed report within two weeks explaining how the infections occurred.

Notably, the families' petition argues that the health system's failure to act amounts to institutional negligence — not merely an administrative lapse.

Broader Paediatric HIV Crisis in Sindh

The hospital outbreak is set against a deeply troubling regional trend. Citing Sindh's health department, The Telegraph reported that 329 of the 894 HIV cases recorded in the province between January and March this year were among children — a proportion that alarmed public health observers.

This comes amid growing concern over paediatric HIV infections across Pakistan, where healthcare-associated outbreaks have recurred with troubling regularity.

Pakistan's History of Healthcare-Linked HIV Outbreaks

The current outbreak is not an isolated incident. Pakistan witnessed a similar crisis in 2019 in Ratodero, Sindh, where hundreds of children were infected after contaminated needles were allegedly reused. A subsequent investigation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) identified unsafe injection practices as the primary cause.

According to the report, by June 2019, more than 800 children had tested positive in the town of 300,000. '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,' the report noted.

The recurrence of such outbreaks raises urgent questions about whether systemic reforms were ever implemented following the Ratodero crisis — and whether accountability mechanisms in Pakistan's public health infrastructure are adequate to prevent further tragedies.