HIV outbreak sparks panic in southern Pakistan

RATO DERO, Pakistan: Parents nervously watch as their children wait to be tested for HIV in a village in southern Pakistan, where hundreds of people have been allegedly infected by a doctor using a contaminated syringe.

Dispatched to keep order, police scan the anxious crowd as families hustle into one of five different screening rooms set up in the last month in the village of Wasayo, on the outskirts of Larkana in Sindh province.

Health officials say more than 400 people, many of them children, have tested HIV positive in recent weeks as experts warn of a surge in infection rates across Pakistan, due to the use of unsanitary equipment and rampant malpractice — o en at the hands of quack doctors.

Anger and fear continue to swell in the desperately poor village hit hard by the epidemic, which authorities say could be linked to either gross negligence or malicious intent by a local pediatrician.

“They are coming by the dozens,” says a doctor at the makeshi clinic, beset by a lack of equipment and personnel to treat the surging number of patients.

Mukhtar Pervez waits anxiously to have her daughter tested, worrying a recent fever may be linked to the outbreak. For others, their worst fears have already become a reality.

Nisar Ahmed arrived at the clinic in a furious search for medicine a er his one-year-old daughter tested positive three days earlier.

“I curse (the doctor) who has caused all these children to be infected,” he says angrily.

Nearby Imam Zadi accompanies five of her children to be examined a er her grandson tested positive.

“The entire family is so upset,” she tells AFP.

Pakistan was long considered a low prevalence country for HIV, but the disease is expanding at an alarming rate, particularly among intravenous drug users and sex workers.

With about 20,000 new HIV infections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently has the second fastest growing HIV rates across Asia, according to the UN. — AFP

Nisar Ahmed I curse [the doctor] who has caused all these children to be infected.

— AFP file photo A Pakistani paramedic takes a blood sample from a baby for a HIV test at a staterun hospital in Rato Dero in the district of Larkana.

— AFP file photo Pakistani local pediatrician alleged to have been responsible for the HIV outbreak, DrMuzaffar Ghangro, is seen behind the bars at a local police station.