Man murders HIV-positive wife in Shikarpur accusing her of cheating

Victim's husband accused the 32-year-old of having an extramarital affair

KARACHI: A man killed his HIV-positive wife on Wednesday in the Shikarpur district of Sindh where hundreds of people have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.

The victim—a 32-year-old mother of four—tested positive in recent days, according to a local police officer, with her husband accusing her of having an extramarital affair.

“This morning the husband strangled (her) with a rope and then hung her from a tree outside his home,” Roshan Ali, a police officer in Shikarpur said, adding that the suspect was now in custody.

Anger and fear continue to swell in the desperately poor villages and suburbs near neighbouring Larkana district affected by the epidemic, which authorities say could be linked to either gross negligence or malicious intent by a local doctor using tainted syringes.

The silent spread of HIV

Health officials say nearly 700 people, many of them children, have tested positive in recent weeks as experts warn of a surge in infection rates across the country due to the use of unsanitary equipment and rampant malpractice—often at the hands of quack doctors.

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.