Source: independent.co.uk<\/p>\n
Nearly 900 children in a Pakistani city have tested positive for\u00a0HIV\u00a0after a rogue paediatrician allegedly reused\u00a0infected syringes.<\/p>\n
About 200 adults have also\u00a0tested positive for the virus since the epidemic in Ratodero was confirmed in April.<\/p>\n
But health officials fear the true number affected could be far higher, with less a quarter of city\u2019s 200,000 residents tested so far.<\/p>\n
The outbreak was initially blamed on Dr Muzaffar Ghanghro, a\u00a0paediatrician\u00a0who\u00a0at 16p a visit was one of the cheapest in the small central city.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0was arrested and charged\u00a0with negligence and manslaughter after his patients accused him of frequently reusing syringes on their children.<\/p>\n
Imtiaz Jalbani, whose six children were treated by the paediatrician, told\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0Dr Ganghro\u00a0searched through his bin for an old needle to use on his six-year-old son, later diagnosed as HIV-positive.\u00a0When Mr Jalbani protested,\u00a0the doctor said the father was too poor to pay for a new needle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Four of Mr Jalbani\u2019s\u00a0children have since tested positive for the virus and the two youngest have died.<\/p>\n Another parent whose three children contracted the disease after being treated by Dr Ganghro told\u00a0Reuters<\/em>\u00a0the paediatrician \u201capplied the same drip on 50 children without changing the needle\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr Ganghro has not yet been convicted, and despite laws to deny\u00a0bail to those accused of reusing syringes,\u00a0is now working as a GP at a public hospital on the city\u2019s outskirts after renewing his medical certificate.<\/p>\n He has denied all accusations and insists he is innocent.<\/p>\n Despite an initial investigation by police and health officials concluding Dr Ganghro\u2019s \u201cnegligence and carelessness\u201d as the \u201cprime\u201d reason for the outbreak, officials believe\u00a0<\/em>he is unlikely to be the sole cause.<\/p>\n Visiting health workers often see doctors in Ratodero\u00a0reusing syringes, while dentists use unsterilised tools in roadside surgeries and barbers use the same razor on various customers,\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n There is still a widespread lack of awareness about the realities of the virus among locals, with many fearing it can be contracted via touch.<\/p>\n This has reportedly led to some of the nearly 900 known\u00a0HIV-positive children being shunned by their peers and forced to sit away from others at school. Some relatives also reportedly fear contracting the virus via physical contact with their\u00a0children.<\/p>\n A lack of literacy on the subject is not uncommon among\u00a0poorer communities across much\u00a0of\u00a0Pakistan, where cases of HIV have nearly doubled since 2010 to 160,000, according to the United Nations\u2019 taskforce on\u00a0HIV and Aids.<\/p>\n About 600,000 unqualified doctors are thought to be unlawfully operating in the country, 270,000 of them in Sindh province where Ratodero\u00a0is located, according to the United Nations joint programme on HIV and Aids<\/p>\n The Pakistani government responded to the crisis by shutting down clinics with unregistered doctors and illegal blood banks.\u00a0It emerged many had been reusing syringes.<\/p>\n But as international and media attention waned, some clinics began to reopen.<\/p>\n Imran Akbar Arbani, the doctor who first identified the wave of sick children as an outbreak of HIV, told\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>: \u201cUnless these quack doctors, barbers and dentists are not checked, the number of incidents of HIV infection will continue going up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[348,52,2218,552],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aids-hiv","tag-doctors","tag-hiv","tag-paediatrician","tag-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n