537 children test positive for HIV in Larkana, says health adviser

So far children between two to 12 years of age contract virus in Rato Dero: Zafar Mirza

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said on Sunday that over 600 people, most of them children, had tested HIV positive in Sindh's Larkana.

Concern grew after hundreds of people were allegedly infected by a doctor using a contaminated syringe in Ratodero and surrounding villages of the district.

"Some 681 people, of which 537 were children from two to 12 years of age, had been tested positive for HIV until yesterday in Ratodero," Mirza told a press conference in Islamabad.

He said 21,375 people had been screened in Ratodero, adding "the increase in the number of patients being tested positive for HIV is a matter of grave concern for the government".

Mirza said the "use of unsafe syringes might be one of the causes for spread of the disease but the government is making all-out efforts to ascertain the exact cause".

"Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to unveil drastic measures to prevent the disease once we ascertain the cause of the spread of disease," he added.

Parents in the area fear their children's futures have been irreparably harmed after contracting HIV.

HIV outbreak, inability to control polio a systematic failure: experts

Pakistan has long been 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.

Pakistan's surging population also suffers the additional burden of having insufficient access to quality healthcare following decades of under-investment by the state, leaving impoverished, rural communities especially vulnerable to unqualified medical practitioners.