Karachi, Sindh: Families of Karachi HIV children linked to a government hospital demanded an FIR, quality treatment and compensation after at least nine deaths.
The families gathered at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday and accused the staff at Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital in SITE of serious medical negligence.
The hospital is a Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution facility under the labour department.
Parents’ lawyer Tariq Mansoor said 200 children were affected, including some born at the hospital and others admitted for unrelated illnesses.
Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal earlier told lawmakers that contaminated syringe reuse at the hospital had infected 84 children. Parents alleged the hospital withheld medical records after the outbreak surfaced.
Muammar Khan said he took his grandson to Aga Khan University Hospital for testing after rejecting the hospital’s assurance that the child was not HIV positive.
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Owais, father of an HIV-affected boy, said families faced social stigma, school cancellations and financial pressure as children required repeated care. Advocate Mansoor demanded urgent completion and public release of the inquiry into the outbreak.
He said an FIR under the Sindh Regulation and Control of Disposable Syringes Act, 2010, required the health secretary’s action.
The Sindh High Court has issued notices to provincial health authorities on a plea seeking enforcement of the disposable syringes law and an inquiry into the children’s HIV infections.
