How Children Are Compensating for the Massive HIV Epidemic in Pakistan

Since his son was diagnosed with HIV during an infant outbreak in Pakistan, Shahzado Shar has often been forced to choose between food and medicine.

In 2019, his five-year-old son was one in hundreds after a whistleblower doctor unveiled a scandal of repeated needle use in southern Sindh.

According to the State Department of Health, the number of patients is skyrocketing. Two years later, that number exceeded 1,500.

After the disaster, Pakistan’s largest HIV testing and treatment center was set up in a rural town in Rotadro to provide life-saving antiretroviral drugs.

However, the affected family must bear the additional costs incurred due to the illness.

“They told us to go to a private hospital for further tests, but we didn’t have enough money,” Shall told AFP, and his son frequently had fever, abdominal pain, and kidney pain. I explained how to continue.

About 30 children were also infected with HIV in a small village in Subani Shah, just a few kilometers from La Todro.

Pakistan’s public hospitals are predominantly in cities, often chaotic and inefficient, and rural families rely on private clinics, which are often crowded with unlicensed doctors. ..

Fatimamir, a pediatrician at the University of Aga Khan in Karachi, analyzed the data. She said at least 50 children had died since the diagnosis.

Mill said he expects this number to increase further given the malnutrition and poverty of families in the region.

Authorities have accused the doctor, a popular children’s expert in La Todoro, of causing the outbreak.

Muzaffar Ghangro is currently on bail, court hearings have been repeatedly postponed, and many families are angry.

He denied allegations against him, saying that other doctors blamed him for the epidemic for his successful practice.

The doctor who first exposed Sind’s dirty needle scandal said there was little change since 2019.

Whistleblower Imran Akbar Albani called the country’s misconduct “relentless” and said it was “as bad as it was when the epidemic broke out.”

Avani brought epidemic data to local media after discovering an astonishing number of HIV babies in Ratdro, which owns a private clinic.

Authorities responded swiftly at the time, but discipline has declined since then, he said.

“In the first three months, bullies and unauthorized doctors were banned and their clinics were closed, but then they got permission,” he said.

Rafiq Khanani, director and physician of the Pakistan Institute for Infectious Diseases, said regulations were ineffective or often ignored.

“Regulatory departments only exist in files and offices … in fact, they are invalid.”

After the scandal, the government banned the import of conventional syringes, insisted on using only disposable self-locking needles, and cannot be redeployed.

But Sindh health officials, who asked not to be named, told AFP that many doctors have evaded the ban and are still buying cheaper models.

At Rato Dero’s HIV Testing and Treatment Center, patients sit in front of a television screen and make medical recommendations in their local state of Sindh.

A frail 20-year-old man sits quietly with his father, waiting for the results of a rapid HIV test.

Pediatrician Mill said successful large-scale tests help identify victims of the crisis and slow their spread.

But Pakistan must now surpass important anti-retroviral drugs to provide more comprehensive care to patients, Ayesha Isani Majeed, head of the government’s national AIDS management program, told AFP.

As the sun set over Subanishar, the mother sat on her lap and her daughter regained her fever.

Hakima Shah said she might forget to give these medicines to a 4-year-old child. These drugs control the virus and help prevent further infections that she often refuses to take.

“We are very poor … I started working as soon as I was in the sun. Who else would give her regular medicine?” The 25-year-old mother was also infected with the virus. Said that.

Many families have never heard of HIV, but it now dominates their lives.

“The government doesn’t provide us with antibiotics or multivitamins and we can’t afford them ourselves,” she said. “We’re fucked.”