Pakistan faces rapid HIV spread due to unsafe medical practices • FRANCE 24 English

In this village in Synind, daily life of Shami BB, mother of four has turned upside down. 6 months ago, her 9-year-old daughter Rahila contracted HIV after receiving a blood transfusion in a local hospital. Last year, at least 150 children tested positive for HIV in the Miruras district. She has respiratory problems. The doctor diagnosed her with anemia, deeming a blood transfusion necessary. After this, her condition deteriorated rapidly. She lost consciousness. Tests revealed she had HIV. We didn’t know what it was. A relative explained it, and we were devastated. The doctor said she might not survive, and if she did, she would carry the disease for the rest of her life. Raila’s HIV treatment is free, but the family still spends about €1 a day on additional medicines and transport to the hospital, roughly half of what her father earns as a day wage laborer. I don’t leave the house. I stay inside because when I go out, the children hit me and tell me to stay away because I’m sick. I used to love going to school, but my mother tells me I can’t go because I have this illness. Across Sind nearly 4,000 children are HIV positive. A crisis driven by dangerous medical practices. In this clandestine clinic, 24year-old Abdul Karim, a nursing student, treats 80 patients a day. He has neither a diploma nor a medical license. One of more than 600,000 quack doctors operating in the province. A consultation costs 30 cents. Medications are handed out without prescriptions. Hygiene standards are ignored and syringes are often reused. Real doctors are very expensive. They charge high fees. The villages are poor and have to pay for transportation and are prescribed costly medications. But self-taught practitioners like us charge low fees and the medicines included. That’s why people prefer to come to us. In Pakistan, more than 290,000 people are living with HIV, but only 23% know their status and barely 15% are receiving treatment.

Pakistan could record over 14,000 new HIV cases in 2025, driven largely by unregulated medical practices such as unsafe transfusions, reused syringes, and unlicensed clinics. In Sindh province, nearly 4,000 children are HIV-positive, including many infected through routine medical care, highlighting a crisis that extends beyond traditional high-risk groups. Despite 290,000 people living with HIV in the country, only 23% know their status and just 15% receive treatment. FRANCE 24’s team reports.
#Pakistan #AIDSPakistan

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33 comments

  7. It's horrible to hear of a little child suffering from a lifelong illness like this. This poor child. Why aren't they testing the blood? It's infuriating

  11. government officials that are responsible for checking these quacks take money from the quacks and let them operate and do whatever they want

  21. Damn that's brutal. Imagine being born pakistani and contracting aids on top, at least she probably won't have to breed with a relative due to her condition.

  28. Syringes 💉 are reused? What's happening in this country, I knew that situation were worse in pakistan but this is a whole new level.

  29. Rich Pakistani people in Pakistan do not actually care about poor people who are continuously exploited by these rich people. I suspect that the majority of Pakistan is in the west are not different. It has been stated at 65% of Pakistani. Children are stunted a young Pakistani Dismissed this disgustingly. About the majority of Pakistan clergy they are only scholars for dollars.

  33. So he’s a “nursing student” but reusing needles …and also calls himself self taught, they all should be arrested!

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