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 succumbed to HIV shortly after testing positive. His mother, Sughra, recalls his severe fevers, which drove him to sleep in the rain, and his agonizing pain, described as “like he’d been thrown in hot oil.” Ten-year-old Asma, his sister, shared her grief as she stood by her brother’s grave, reflecting on their shared experience of illness. Both children are part of a larger group of 331 individuals in Taunsa, Punjab, Pakistan, who tested positive for HIV between November 2024 and October 2025, according to BBC Eye.

The hospital at the heart of the outbreak, THQ Taunsa, faced scrutiny after a private clinic’s doctor connected the cases to its practices. Authorities responded by suspending the hospital’s medical superintendent in March 2025, promising a “massive crackdown.” However, BBC Eye’s investigation uncovered ongoing unsafe practices months later. During a 32-hour covert operation, staff—including a physician—were seen reusing syringes on multi-dose medicine vials on ten occasions.

“Even if they have attached a new needle, the back part, which we call the syringe body, has the virus in it, so it will transfer even with a new needle,” remarked Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist and leading expert in Pakistan’s infectious disease field, after reviewing the footage.

Despite visible reminders of proper injection protocols, the team observed 66 instances where medical staff injected patients without sterile gloves. A nurse was also filmed retrieving used syringes from a disposal bin without protective gear. Ahmed noted that these actions violated basic infection control principles. When the footage was shown to the hospital’s new medical superintendent, Dr Qasim Buzdar, he dismissed its authenticity, suggesting it could have been staged or recorded before his tenure.

Dr Gul Qaisrani, from a local private clinic, first detected the outbreak in late 2024. He reported that 65 to 70 of his patients had been treated at THQ Taunsa, with one mother recounting that her daughter received an injection with a syringe used by a cousin with HIV. Another parent claimed to have challenged the reuse of syringes but was ignored by hospital staff.

BBC Eye compiled data from the Punjab provincial AIDS screening programme, private clinics, and a leaked police dataset to identify 331 HIV-positive children in Taunsa. Of 97 families tested, only four mothers were HIV-positive, indicating that most cases likely stemmed from contaminated needles rather than mother-to-child transmission. The programme lists “contaminated needle” as the transmission mode for over half of these cases, though the exact method remains unspecified for others.

Following the March 2025 suspension of THQ Taunsa’s medical superintendent, Dr Tayyab Farooq Chandio, he returned to work three months later as a senior medical officer at a rural health centre near Taunsa. Chandio stated he acted immediately upon learning of an HIV case at the hospital but denied it was responsible for the outbreak. He was replaced by Buzdar, who now oversees the facility.