3,900 children registered with HIV in 18 months as...

Summary

•   Islamabad: Pakistan has registered 3,900 HIV positive children in just 18 months, while the number of people estimated to be living with the virus has reached 417,214, raising serious questions about unsafe medical practices, weak checks on healthcare facilities and delays in preventing the spread of the disease.
•   The figures show that 3,900 children were registered as HIV positive between January 2025 and June 2026.
•   The government has also established a national digital system to record HIV cases and monitor patients.

AI Generated Summary

Islamabad: Pakistan has registered 3,900 HIV positive children in just 18 months, while the number of people estimated to be living with the virus has reached 417,214, raising serious questions about unsafe medical practices, weak checks on healthcare facilities and delays in preventing the spread of the disease.

The alarming figures were shared by Federal Minister for National Health Services Syed Mustafa Kamal in a written reply to a question by Dr Sharmila Faruqui in the National Assembly. The reply acknowledged that unsafe injections, reuse of syringes and medical equipment, poorly controlled blood transfusions and weak infection control measures were among the major factors linked to recent HIV outbreaks.

The figures show that 3,900 children were registered as HIV positive between January 2025 and June 2026. Sindh recorded the highest number with 1,915 cases, followed by Punjab with 1,765. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 139 cases, Balochistan 46, Islamabad 30, Azad Jammu and Kashmir four and Gilgit Baltistan one.

These figures are higher than the 2,100 nationwide child cases referred to in the original question. The government’s reply provided the updated National HIV Management Information System figures covering January 2025 to June 2026.

The question also referred to more than 130 infected people, mostly children, in Karachi and raised concerns over repeated outbreaks despite the 2019 Ratodero outbreak, in which nearly 900 children were reportedly infected through contaminated syringes.

The government admitted that investigations into the recent outbreaks and the Ratodero incident had identified serious weaknesses in healthcare practices. These included the reuse of syringes and medical equipment, unsafe injections, inadequately screened blood transfusions and poor enforcement of infection prevention rules.

The admission has raised serious concerns about how medical facilities are being monitored and why unsafe practices continue to put patients, particularly children, at risk.

According to the minister, the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS reported that Pakistan was among the countries with the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the Eastern Mediterranean region. New infections increased from around 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024, representing a rise of approximately 200 percent.