Families Demand Justice Over Children’s HIV Cases at Sindh Hospital
Families of children who contracted HIV/AIDS after treatment at a government hospital in Karachi have renewed their demand for justice, saying the authorities have failed to act months after the outbreak devastated their lives. The parents gathered at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday to call for a criminal case, proper medical care and compensation.
The case centres on Kulsoom Bai Valia Hospital in SITE, a Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution facility operating under the provincial labour department. Families say around 200 children were affected, with some reportedly born at the hospital and others admitted there for unrelated illnesses before later testing positive for HIV.
Parents said the outbreak had already caused at least nine deaths and left surviving children facing repeated illness, social isolation and uncertain futures. Many families said they were struggling financially because regular hospital visits forced them to miss work, lose daily wages and bear costs they could not afford.
Speaking through their lawyer, Advocate Tariq Mansoor, the families demanded registration of an FIR against the hospital staff allegedly responsible for negligence. They also asked the Sindh government to complete and publish the inquiry, arrange quality treatment for all affected children and provide financial support to households pushed into crisis.
Parents also described the emotional and social damage caused by the outbreak. Some said their children were shunned after their health status became known, while others claimed school admissions were cancelled and families broke apart under the pressure of stigma, poverty and fear.
The families alleged that the hospital did not provide complete medical records when concerns about the HIV outbreak first emerged. One relative said he took a child for independent testing at Aga Khan University Hospital after doubting the hospital’s reassurance, only to receive a positive result that confirmed the family’s worst fear.
The legal dispute has widened into a broader question of public health accountability in Sindh. Advocate Mansoor said the Sindh Regulation and Control of Disposable Syringes Act, 2010, gives authorities a legal route to act against unsafe syringe practices, but he argued that the law remains weak because implementation rules have still not been properly framed after many years.
The case has also revived concern over repeated HIV and hepatitis outbreaks linked to unsafe medical practices in Pakistan. Health experts have long warned that reused syringes, poor infection control, unregulated clinics and weak oversight can turn routine treatment into a source of lifelong disease, particularly for children and low-income patients.
For Pakistan, the controversy is not only a health emergency but also a governance test. The affected families are poor, vulnerable and dependent on public systems that are supposed to protect them. Their struggle highlights the gap between health spending, donor-backed disease-control programmes and the everyday safety standards patients experience inside hospitals.
The next step now rests with provincial authorities, who face growing pressure to make the inquiry public, determine responsibility and ensure uninterrupted treatment for the children. Until a credible investigation and legal action move forward, the families say they will continue pressing their case inside Pakistan and before international child and labour rights organisations.