- Joined
- Dec 6, 2010
- Messages
- 33,612
- Reaction score
- 5,999
Officially the worst headline I've seen this month.
Unsafe, but common, practices such as reusing syringes and drips caused hundreds of Pakistani children to be infected with HIV, according to a World Health Organization team investigating an outbreak in a poor southeastern town.
The WHO’s preliminary findings, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and presented to Pakistani health officials Friday, offer a window into how more than 650 children tested positive for HIV in one town during six weeks of government tests, while nearly all their parents tested negative.
“Unsafe injection practices and poor infection control is likely to be the most important driver of the outbreak,” the WHO-led team said in the presentation to officials. The WHO said its investigators are assessing the impact of the outbreak.
The infections first surfaced in late April, when a local doctor in Ratodero, a town of more than 330,000 people, raised alarm bells about children mysteriously testing HIV positive. As a result, the government decided to offer screenings to the entire town.
Out of the more than 27,000 people who volunteered for HIV screening in Ratodero, 798 had tested positive as of Thursday, according to government data reviewed by the Journal. Of the infected, most were children under the age of 5.
Before the screening, a little more than 1,000 children were registered as HIV positive in the entire country, according to the WHO.
Police last month arrested a Ratodero pediatrician, Muzaffar Ghangro, alleging that his reuse of syringes was the source of the infections. Dr. Ghangro’s lawyer said his client is innocent. He has been charged with medical malpractice.
In its presentation, the WHO-led team concluded “it is not possible to exclude the role of many other clinics, hospitals, and unlicensed health-care providers, considering the universally poor injection and blood-safety practices,” raising questions over how widespread the problem could be across Pakistan.
Health authorities in Sindh, a province of about 48 million people that includes Ratodero, closed more than 500 clinics run by unlicensed doctors after the infections surfaced. They also shut down three unregistered blood banks in Larkana, the district where Ratodero is located.
“This should be a wake-up call for Pakistan’s health-care system,” Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s newly appointed federal health minister, said at a news conference Friday. “A time has come for us to make public health a fiscal priority,” he said, without elaborating. Pakistan has one of the world’s lowest rates of health-care spending as a proportion of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
It is unclear whether a screening campaign would take place across the nation, but Sindh’s health minister said Friday she planned to set up more testing centers in the province. “Syringes are not only being reused in Ratodero; this is happening elsewhere, too,” said Azra Fazal Pechuho, adding that authorities in her province were cracking down on the practice.
The WHO said there was a need to work with parents, and health-care professions, to warn against the rampant overuse of syringes and drips. “Educating the community is critical,” said the WHO’s Oliver Morgan, who leads the team investigating the outbreak. “People think they need an injection” to feel better, he said, and “often they do not.” Many doctors don’t refuse the request, said Dr. Pechuho, as it fetches them more fees.
Pakistan doesn’t have enough antiretroviral drugs to deal with the new infections, according to health officials. Supplies, which were expected from India this week, are now due at the end of the month. The Sindh government said it has allocated $6.4 million toward people’s treatment, including funding antiretrovirals whose course would run for life. The allocation is for the continuing fiscal year, a spokeswoman for Dr. Pechuho said, and fresh funds will be issued every year. The WHO and other health organizations are helping fund medicines until next year.
For the parents of children who are infected, the problem is a lack of quality care in Ratodero. Many families the Journal interviewed traveled hundreds of miles to cities to seek treatment that was often unaffordable. The local government plans to open a new center to treat children this month, but parents say they would prefer to treat their children elsewhere even if the care is out of their reach.
Tarique Hussain, who earns $220 a month as a soldier in the Pakistani army, said he had to sell his father’s inheritance to raise money for his son’s treatment. Mr. Hussain’s son was among the children diagnosed positive by Imran Akbar Arbani, the doctor who first raised alarm bells about the infections, in April.
Now 4 years old, Sarfraz Ali had been treated for a recurring fever and diarrhea “by at least 13 to 14 people in two years,” Mr. Hussain said, starting in 2017 with Dr. Ghangro, one of the few licensed physicians in Ratodero.
“We tested him for everything—malaria, hepatitis, typhoid,” said Mr. Hussain, “but he grew lifeless with every passing week.” When his wife broke the news that their son was HIV positive in April, “I couldn’t believe what I had heard,” said Mr. Hussain, who was stationed in another state at the time.
He rushed home to test his wife and three other children. No one else tested positive. While the government has pledged to fund antiretrovirals, “who will pay the bills for all the other ailments that are attacking my son because of his HIV?” Mr. Hussain asked.
“My child was supposed to have his whole life ahead of him,” he said. “Now it’s over before it could even begin.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/reusin...istani-children-with-hiv-11560503649?mod=e2fb
Previously:
Reused Syringes Infected Hundreds of Pakistani Children With HIV
More than 700 people have tested HIV positive in a southeastern Pakistani town
More than 700 people have tested HIV positive in a southeastern Pakistani town
Unsafe, but common, practices such as reusing syringes and drips caused hundreds of Pakistani children to be infected with HIV, according to a World Health Organization team investigating an outbreak in a poor southeastern town.
The WHO’s preliminary findings, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and presented to Pakistani health officials Friday, offer a window into how more than 650 children tested positive for HIV in one town during six weeks of government tests, while nearly all their parents tested negative.
“Unsafe injection practices and poor infection control is likely to be the most important driver of the outbreak,” the WHO-led team said in the presentation to officials. The WHO said its investigators are assessing the impact of the outbreak.
The infections first surfaced in late April, when a local doctor in Ratodero, a town of more than 330,000 people, raised alarm bells about children mysteriously testing HIV positive. As a result, the government decided to offer screenings to the entire town.
Out of the more than 27,000 people who volunteered for HIV screening in Ratodero, 798 had tested positive as of Thursday, according to government data reviewed by the Journal. Of the infected, most were children under the age of 5.
Before the screening, a little more than 1,000 children were registered as HIV positive in the entire country, according to the WHO.
Police last month arrested a Ratodero pediatrician, Muzaffar Ghangro, alleging that his reuse of syringes was the source of the infections. Dr. Ghangro’s lawyer said his client is innocent. He has been charged with medical malpractice.
In its presentation, the WHO-led team concluded “it is not possible to exclude the role of many other clinics, hospitals, and unlicensed health-care providers, considering the universally poor injection and blood-safety practices,” raising questions over how widespread the problem could be across Pakistan.
Health authorities in Sindh, a province of about 48 million people that includes Ratodero, closed more than 500 clinics run by unlicensed doctors after the infections surfaced. They also shut down three unregistered blood banks in Larkana, the district where Ratodero is located.
“This should be a wake-up call for Pakistan’s health-care system,” Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s newly appointed federal health minister, said at a news conference Friday. “A time has come for us to make public health a fiscal priority,” he said, without elaborating. Pakistan has one of the world’s lowest rates of health-care spending as a proportion of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
It is unclear whether a screening campaign would take place across the nation, but Sindh’s health minister said Friday she planned to set up more testing centers in the province. “Syringes are not only being reused in Ratodero; this is happening elsewhere, too,” said Azra Fazal Pechuho, adding that authorities in her province were cracking down on the practice.
The WHO said there was a need to work with parents, and health-care professions, to warn against the rampant overuse of syringes and drips. “Educating the community is critical,” said the WHO’s Oliver Morgan, who leads the team investigating the outbreak. “People think they need an injection” to feel better, he said, and “often they do not.” Many doctors don’t refuse the request, said Dr. Pechuho, as it fetches them more fees.
Pakistan doesn’t have enough antiretroviral drugs to deal with the new infections, according to health officials. Supplies, which were expected from India this week, are now due at the end of the month. The Sindh government said it has allocated $6.4 million toward people’s treatment, including funding antiretrovirals whose course would run for life. The allocation is for the continuing fiscal year, a spokeswoman for Dr. Pechuho said, and fresh funds will be issued every year. The WHO and other health organizations are helping fund medicines until next year.
For the parents of children who are infected, the problem is a lack of quality care in Ratodero. Many families the Journal interviewed traveled hundreds of miles to cities to seek treatment that was often unaffordable. The local government plans to open a new center to treat children this month, but parents say they would prefer to treat their children elsewhere even if the care is out of their reach.
Tarique Hussain, who earns $220 a month as a soldier in the Pakistani army, said he had to sell his father’s inheritance to raise money for his son’s treatment. Mr. Hussain’s son was among the children diagnosed positive by Imran Akbar Arbani, the doctor who first raised alarm bells about the infections, in April.
Now 4 years old, Sarfraz Ali had been treated for a recurring fever and diarrhea “by at least 13 to 14 people in two years,” Mr. Hussain said, starting in 2017 with Dr. Ghangro, one of the few licensed physicians in Ratodero.
“We tested him for everything—malaria, hepatitis, typhoid,” said Mr. Hussain, “but he grew lifeless with every passing week.” When his wife broke the news that their son was HIV positive in April, “I couldn’t believe what I had heard,” said Mr. Hussain, who was stationed in another state at the time.
He rushed home to test his wife and three other children. No one else tested positive. While the government has pledged to fund antiretrovirals, “who will pay the bills for all the other ailments that are attacking my son because of his HIV?” Mr. Hussain asked.
“My child was supposed to have his whole life ahead of him,” he said. “Now it’s over before it could even begin.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/reusin...istani-children-with-hiv-11560503649?mod=e2fb
Previously:
Last edited:
