Undercover footage from THQ Taunsa hospital in Pakistan shows medical staff reusing syringes and contaminated medicine vials, months after authorities promised a crackdown on a pediatric HIV outbreak.
Between November 2024 and October 2025, at least 331 children in the Taunsa district tested positive for HIV, according to data compiled by BBC Eye from provincial screening programs and leaked police records.
During 32 hours of filming in late 2025, investigators witnessed syringes being reused on multi-dose medicine vials on 10 separate occasions. In four instances, medicine from the same vial was administered to different children.
"Even if they have attached a new needle, the back part, which we call the syringe body, has the virus in it, so it will transfer even with a new needle," said Dr. Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist.
Systemic failures in infection control
Staff members, including a doctor, were filmed performing injections without sterile gloves 66 times. Investigators also observed a nurse handling medical waste without protection and a nurse retrieving a used syringe from under a counter to be used on another patient.
The outbreak first came to light in late 2024 when Dr. Gul Qaisrani, a local physician, noticed a surge in HIV-positive pediatric patients. He noted that most of these children had received treatment at THQ Taunsa.
One parent reported to Dr. Qaisrani that their daughter was injected with the same syringe used on a relative living with HIV. Other parents claimed their complaints regarding syringe reuse were ignored by hospital nurses.
While the Punjab government suspended the hospital's medical superintendent, Dr. Tayyab Farooq Chandio, in March 2025, BBC Eye found he was working as a senior medical officer at a nearby rural health center just three months later. Chandio denied the hospital caused the outbreak.
The hospital's new superintendent, Dr. Qasim Buzdar, dismissed the undercover footage, suggesting it was either staged or recorded before his tenure. He maintained that the hospital follows a "zero tolerance" policy for unsafe practices.
However, the investigation found that many children receive injections via cannulas, a method that allows contaminated medicine to enter the bloodstream directly. Provincial data lists contaminated needles as the transmission mode for more than half of the 331 identified cases.
