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People waiting for a blood screening of their blood in a hospital in a village near Ratodero.
Photo:
Fareed Khan / Associated Press
According to a World Health Organization team investigating an outbreak in a southeastern southeast city, hundreds of Pakistani children have been contaminated by dangerous but common practices, such as the reuse of infusions and syringes.
WHO's preliminary findings, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and presented to Pakistani health authorities on Friday, open a window on how more than 650 children tested positive for HIV in a city during six weeks of testing. almost all of their parents were negative.
"Unsafe injection practices and insufficient control of infections will likely be the most important factor in the epidemic," said WHO in a presentation to Pakistan's health authorities. Investigators evaluate the impact of the epidemic.
Infections first appeared in late April, when a local doctor from Ratodero, a town of more than 330,000 residents, rang the alarm about mysteriously HIV-positive children. . As a result, the government decided to offer screening to the entire city.
Of the more than 27,000 people who volunteered for HIV testing in Ratodero, 798 tested positive on Thursday, according to government data reviewed by the Journal. Most of those infected were children under 5 years old.
Before screening, just over 1,000 children were registered as HIV-positive nationwide, according to the WHO.
Write to Preetika Rana at [email protected]
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