Hospital at centre of child HIV outbreak caught reusing syringes in undercover filming
Hospital at Centre of Child HIV Outbreak Caught Reusing Syringes in Undercover Filming
At just eight years old, Mohammed Amin passed away shortly after an HIV diagnosis. His high fevers led him to sleep in the rain, and his mother, Sughra, recalls his agony as “like he’d been thrown in hot oil.” Asma, a 10-year-old, shares her grief while kneeling at her younger brother’s grave, describing the emotional toll of his illness. Both children became infected during routine medical care at THQ Taunsa, a government hospital in Punjab, Pakistan, according to their family. They are among 331 children in the city who tested positive for HIV between November 2024 and October 2025, as identified by BBC Eye.
Unsafe Practices Persist Despite Promises
A private clinic doctor linked the HIV cases to THQ Taunsa in late 2024, prompting local authorities to vow a “massive crackdown” and suspend the hospital’s medical superintendent in March 2025. However, BBC Eye’s investigation revealed that hazardous injection methods continued for months afterward. During 32 hours of hidden filming in late 2025, staff reused syringes on shared medication vials ten times, potentially spreading the virus. In four instances, the same vial was administered to different children.
“Even with a new needle, the syringe body still carries the virus, so it can transmit infection,” said Dr Altaf Ahmed, a microbiology expert and HIV specialist in Pakistan.
The footage also showed nurses and doctors injecting patients without sterile gloves 66 times. A separate expert noted that the video exposed systemic gaps in infection control training across Pakistan. A nurse was seen handling medical waste without gloves, violating basic safety protocols. When shown the evidence, the hospital’s new superintendent, Dr Qasim Buzdar, dismissed its authenticity, claiming it could have been staged or recorded before his tenure. He insisted his facility was safe for pediatric patients.
Investigation Reveals Widespread Contamination
Dr Gul Qaisrani, a local clinic physician, first noticed the outbreak in late 2024 after seeing a surge in children testing HIV-positive. He estimates 65 to 70 of these cases involved treatment at THQ Taunsa. One mother told him her daughter received an injection using the same syringe as an HIV-positive cousin, and the needle was reused for multiple patients. A father also recounted challenging staff about the practice but was ignored.
BBC Eye cross-referenced data from Punjab’s Aids screening program, private clinics, and a leaked police dataset to confirm the 331 HIV-positive children. Among 97 families tested, only four mothers were HIV-positive, suggesting most infections were not from mother-to-child transmission. The majority of cases cited “contaminated needle” as the transmission method, though some remain unclassified.
Despite the Punjab government’s March 2025 intervention, which reported 106 cases, THQ Taunsa’s former superintendent, Dr Tayyab Farooq Chandio, resumed working with children as a senior officer at a rural health centre just three months later. He claimed the hospital took “immediate” action upon learning of an HIV-positive case but denied it caused the outbreak. Chandio was later replaced by Buzdar.