BBC reports ‘serious malpractices’ continued at Taunsa hospital months after it was linked to HIV outbreak – Pakistan

An expose by the BBC has revealed that “serious malpractices” in the children’s ward of a government hospital in Punjab’s Taunsa continued months after the facility was linked to an outbreak of HIV among children, the British broadcaster said.

A surge in HIV cases at Taunsa Tehsil Headquarters Hospital was reported in late 2024.

“Punjab authorities promised a crackdown – but months later, secret filming by BBC Eye Investigations found that children’s lives were still being put at risk,” the broadcaster said in a press release.

The revelations were made in a documentary podcast and have also been detailed in a written report.

The BBC said that months after 106 children were infected in Taunsa, health authorities promised a ‘massive crackdown’ and suspended the medical superintendent of THQ in March 2025, but an insider working in the hospital told the broadcaster that nothing had changed.

“Acting on evidence provided, the BBC went undercover inside the children’s ward in late 2025. Filmed covertly over several weeks, the BBC’s investigation reveals repeated and serious breaches of basic infection control,” the BBC said.

“The footage shows nurses injecting patients through their clothes, handing over dirty syringes for re-use, and unqualified volunteers injecting child after child from a blood-contaminated vial of liquid medicine.”

The undercover filming also captured “wider problems: staff handling medical waste with bare hands, syringes and needles left exposed, and unqualified volunteers — who were officially banned from the children’s ward — operating without supervision”.

Staff shortages and supply problems appeared to be contributing to the situation, according to the BBC’s findings.

In some cases, families were asked to buy their own medicines, the BBC reported, adding that “under pressure, staff reused equipment or shared medication between patients to make limited supplies last”.

The broadcaster further reported that at least 331 children in Taunsa tested positive for HIV between November 2024 and October 2025.

“Of their parents who also agreed to be tested, fewer than one in 20 were HIV-positive. Infections continued even after the government intervention in March 2025”.

The BBC also spoke to Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist and an expert on infectious diseases, who reviewed the broadcaster’s undercover footage and “confirmed that the malpractice recorded at THQ carries a high risk of infecting children with blood-borne diseases, including HIV”.

“The chances [of infection] are very high,” he said, “because the vial is contaminated.”

It also showed the undercover footage to the new medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Qasim Buzdar.

“Dr Buzdar said the video must have been recorded before his tenure. When informed that the malpractice took place on his watch, Dr Buzdar claimed it might have been staged,” BBC reported.

“Infection prevention controls are followed at THQ Taunsa,” he was quoted as saying.

The report also had a statement by the local government that said “no validated epidemiological evidence” had “conclusively established THQ as a source” of the outbreak.

The previous Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Tayyab Chandio, also denied responsibility, the BBC reported.

“The team discovered that just weeks after he was suspended from THQ in March 2025, Chandio was re-appointed to another government clinic in Punjab, where he continues to treat children.

“The local government told that ‘no inquiry outcome has legally barred’ Dr Chandio from practice. Dr Chandio said THQ hospital was not the cause of the outbreak,” the broadcaster said.

According to the BBC’s findings, HIV infections among children in Taunsa are still being detected. “Nineteen new cases have been identified in the past four months. To date, nine of Taunsa’s children have died after contracting the disease,” the broadcaster reported.

Punjab govt’s rebuttal