Children pay the price of HIV outbreak
A SINGLE PHYSICIAN HAS BEEN BLAMED FOR SPREADING THE VIRUS THAT HAS KILLED AT LEAST 50
Since his son was diagnosed with HIV during a mass outbreak in Pakistan among babies and children, hard-up Shahzado Shar has often been forced to choose between food and medicine.
His five-year-old was one of hundreds who tested positive in 2019 after a whistle-blower doctor uncovered a scandal involving the re-use of needles in southern Sindh province.
The number of patients quickly swelled and two years later the figure stands at more than 1,500, according to data from the provincial health ministry.
Pakistan’s largest HIV testing and treatment centre was established in the rural town of Rota Dero in the wake of the disaster, dishing out life-saving antiretroviral drugs.
In the first three months, quacks and unauthorised medical practitioners were banned and their clinics were sealed, but they obtained clearance later on.”
Imran Akbar Arbani | Whistleblower doctor
Families bear costs
But affected families must cover further costs arising from the illness themselves.
“They tell us to go for further tests in private hospitals, but we don’t have sufficient money,” Shar told AFP, describing how his son continues to suffer from regular fever, abdominal and kidney pain.
Around 30 other children are also HIV positive in their small village of Subhani Shar, just a few kilometres from Rato Dero.
Pakistan’s public hospitals, located largely in cities, are often chaotic and inefficient, leaving rural families to rely on private clinics they can seldom afford that are often stuffed with unlicensed doctors.
At least 50 children have died since they were diagnosed, said paediatric specialist Fatima Mir, from Aga Khan University in Karachi, who has analysed the data — though she had expected the number to be higher given the malnutrition and poverty among families in the area.
Authorities blamed a single physician — a popular child specialist in Rato Dero — for causing the outbreak.
Muzaffar Ghangro is out on bail, with court hearings repeatedly pushed back.
He denies the charges against him, saying other doctors have pinned the outbreak on him because of his successful practice.
‘Ruthless’ malpractice
Poor infection control is rife across impoverished Pakistan, where doctors often re-use equipment to cut costs — out of necessity or greed.
The doctor who first exposed Sindh’s dirty needle scandal says little has changed since 2019.
“Things are as bad as they were at the time of the outbreak,” said whistle-blower Imran Akbar Arbani, who called malpractice in the country “ruthless”.
Arbani took his data on the outbreak to local media after discovering an alarming number of babies with HIV in Rato Dero, where he has a private clinic.
He said authorities were quick to react at the time, but that discipline has since slipped.
“In the first three months, quacks and unauthorised medical practitioners were banned and their clinics were sealed, but they obtained clearance later on,” he said.
In the wake of the scandal, the government banned the import of conventional syringes, insisting only on single-use auto-lock needles which cannot be redeployed.
Circumventing the ban
But a Sindh health official who did not want to be named told AFP that many doctors were circumventing the ban and still buying the cheaper models.