Hundreds of Children Went to a Government Hospital for Care. They Left With HIV.

A local doctor in Taunsa, a mid-sized city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, first noticed something was wrong in late 2024. Children were showing up at his private clinic HIV-positive, and most had no obvious reason to be.

Their parents were testing clean. They were too young for drug use or any of the standard risk factors health officials tend to reach for when a case is inconvenient. What they had in common was simpler and more damning: they had all been treated at the same government hospital.

At least 331 children tested positive for HIV at Taunsa between November 2024 and October 2025. The infections trace back to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, known locally as THQ Taunsa, a state-run facility in Punjab province.

Of 97 children whose families were also tested, only four mothers tested positive, meaning mother-to-child transmission accounts for a fraction of these cases. The provincial AIDS screening program’s own records list contaminated needles as the mode of transmission in more than half of all 331 cases. Nine children have died.

So, what went wrong? And why is noone held accountable?