Pakistan doctor infects over 400 children and 100 adults with AIDS virus

An AIDS-infected doctor has been arrested after 400 children and 100 adults tested positive for the HIV virus in Pakistan.

It has spread “due to a quack” re-using syringes with “no care in regards to infection control measures”, the National AIDS Control Programme Pakistan (NACP) claimed.

Authorities said they traced the outbreak to a single doctor, who allegedly used a contaminated syringe on patients, reports Khaleej Times.

Officials said that the HIV outbreak in Larkana, southern Pakistan, started when local physician Muzaffar Ghangharo, who has AIDS, allegedly infected patients in early April.

The doctor was arrested earlier this month after hundreds of local children and adults tested positive for the virus.

Police are still trying to determine whether Ghangharo knowingly spread the disease to others.

Muzaffar Ghangharo

It’s not clear from media reports whether people were infected with his blood, or from other patients with HIV.

Sikandar Memon, head of the AIDS Control Program in Sindh province, said officials have screened 13,800 people from Larkana and more than 400 children and 100 adults tested positive for HIV.

Nationwide, Pakistan’s Health Ministry has registered over 23,000 HIV cases.

Pakistani health officials have said HIV is usually spread in the country by using unsterilised syringes.