Another hospital, another HIV horror

July 12, 2026

Earlier it was a Taunsa hospital in Punjab. And now it is a Sindh hospital, and the shame is just as deep. The number of children diagnosed with HIV linked to Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital in Karachi has reached 80. Two more cases were reported this week. One of them is a three year old girl from Metroville. She was taken to the hospital for a simple chest infection. She left with a lifelong disease. Her father watched her health decline before doctors finally tested her and confirmed the virus.

This is not just bad luck. This is a failure of the whole system. A hospital that is meant to heal children has instead become a place that infects them. The Sindh Employees Social Security Institution runs this facility. It must answer hard questions. How did this happen. Who allowed it to continue. Why did it take so many cases before action was taken.

The petition before the Sindh High Court points to a terrible possibility. It says contaminated syringes may have been reused on innocent children. If this is true, it is not simple negligence. It is a crime against the most vulnerable people in our society.

Seventeen staff members have already been suspended. That is a start, but it is not enough. Suspension is not punishment. The people responsible for this outbreak must face criminal charges. If reused syringes caused this tragedy, those who allowed it must go to jail. Parents trusted this hospital with their children. That trust was broken in the worst way possible.

Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani has called the matter serious. Words are not enough anymore. Families need justice, not statements. The government has set aside two billion rupees for an endowment fund. This money will help affected children, and that is good. But money cannot undo an HIV diagnosis in a three year old girl.

The country needs strict rules for every hospital in the country. Syringes must never be reused. Equipment must be checked and rechecked. Staff must be trained properly and punished when they fail their duty. Regular surprise inspections must become normal, not rare.

Two hospitals in two provinces have failed our children in the same terrible way. A third cannot be allowed. The government must act now, punish the guilty, and protect every child who walks into a Pakistani hospital seeking nothing more than to get better.