KARACHI: Sindh has reported over 1,300 HIV positive cases in the first five months of 2024, with Larkana, Hyderabad, and Karachi being the most affected cities.
According to officials, 10 to 15 percent of the new cases are children. Most cases are emerging from Larkana and its surrounding districts, as well as Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas, and Karachi.
The number of new cases reported each month has been consistently high: 257 in January, 256 in February, 258 in March, 239 in April, and 293 in May. Mirpur Khas has seen a particularly alarming trend, with 27 children testing positive for HIV this year.
The latest HIV outbreak in Mirpur Khas district has revealed that 20 children were found infected with HIV over the past six months during screenings at a nutrition stabilization center at Civil Hospital Mirpur Khas. Data from the Sindh health department and the Common Management Unit (CMU) for AIDS, TB, and Malaria in Islamabad indicates that the highest number of new HIV cases in Sindh were detected in May 2024, with 293 people diagnosed with the virus.
An international team from the World Health Organization (WHO), which included experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, US, and other international bodies, found that poor infection prevention and control practices, particularly the reuse of syringes by quacks, were the main cause of the HIV outbreak in Larkana in 2019.
