Since 2019, an AIDS epidemic has struck children in a province in western Pakistan. Lack of medical hygiene is the cause in most cases.
- In Pakistan, thousands of children are suffering from AIDS.
- More than half of them became infected with HIV through reusing syringes or transfusing with contaminated blood.
- According to UNAIDS data, at least 6,700 children under the age of 14 were affected by the disease in 2022.
THE “biggest health scandal in modern Pakistan”. THE Figaro thus qualifies the AIDS epidemic which affects children in the Sindh region, in the west of the country, in a survey published on Tuesday May 21, 2024. Since 2019, several thousand children have been infected with HIV in the town of Ratodero.
In Pakistan, thousands of children infected with HIV
Dr Imran Akbar Arbani has a private clinic in this town of more than 280,000 inhabitants. In 2019, several children he examined showed symptoms of AIDS, so he decided to test them and discovered that many of them were contaminated. In just eight days, more than 1,000 people tested positive by the doctor, says the BBC. “I have only identified and reported the tip of the iceberghe confided to Euronewsin spring 2019. There are probably hundreds of other cases, maybe even thousands.” The British media estimates that this is one of the largest HIV epidemics ever known in the country, and the largest recorded among children in Asia.
How can we explain the contamination of children with AIDS?
Among affected children, the majority have no family history of infection with the virus. Investigations reveal that these cases are linked, in part, to the reuse of syringes and needles, as well as to transfusions carried out with contaminated blood. In the article of Figarothe representative of the World Health Organization, Dr Zafar Mirza, believes that the majority of infections are the consequence of “illegal practices of medicine by unqualified persons with false diplomas”. Doctors give injections,”of which 95% are useless, which promote the spread of viruses transmitted by blood”, notes Dr Zafar Mirza in the columns of the daily newspaper. Furthermore, potentially contaminated syringes, needles or blood bags are sometimes thrown into the street, where children play.
AIDS in Pakistan: what measures have been taken?
According to information from Figaro, a doctor was imprisoned and then released on bail, Dr. Muzaafar Ghanghro. Several infected children had been treated in his private clinic. The provincial health commission closed around 300 medical practices, accused of not respecting hygiene rules. “The first three months, quacks and unqualified doctors were chased out and their clinics closed. But they managed to get them to reopen.”lamented Dr. Arbani in an article in theAFP in 2021. Since then, THE Figaro indicates that only two doctors treat the approximately 2,000 children registered at Ratodero hospital.
Across the country, HIV continues to claim lives. According to the latest data fromUNAIDSaround 6,700 children under the age of 14 were infected with HIV in Pakistan in 2022. At the same time, the disease affected more than 260,000 adults over the age of 15 in the country.
