ISLAMABAD: A task force constituted on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recommended an independent evaluation and restructuring of Pakistan’s National and Provincial AIDS Control Programmes along with a nationwide HIV spill-over survey, warning that the country’s true HIV burden remains uncertain and that transmission may no longer be confined to traditional high-risk groups.
The recommendations have been made in a report prepared by the Task Force on Reported HIV Mishandling, a copy of which is available with The News. The report, submitted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was prepared following reports of pediatric HIV infections linked to unsafe healthcare practices, including the alleged reuse of contaminated syringes and deficiencies in infection prevention and control systems.
The task force was chaired by Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, with Maj Gen (R) Dr Azhar Mahmood Kayani serving as co-chair. Its members included former health minister Dr Zafar Mirza, Special Secretary Interior Dawood Muhammad Bareach, Additional Secretary Health Laiq Ahmed, DRAP CEO Dr Obaidullah, Dean IPH Lahore Dr Saira Afzal, infectious diseases expert Dr Sobia Qazi, and senior representatives of NIH, CMU, provincial health departments and UNAIDS.
The report calls for an independent third-party assessment of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and Provincial AIDS Control Programmes (PACPs), focusing on governance, financing, coordination mechanisms and operational effectiveness. The review would form the basis for reforms aimed at strengthening surveillance, outbreak response, contact tracing and patient management.
Among the report’s key recommendations is a comprehensive nationwide epidemiological assessment to determine the actual burden of HIV in Pakistan and assess whether infections have spilled over from traditionally high-risk groups into the wider population.
The proposed survey would examine healthcare-associated transmission linked to unsafe injections and blood transfusions, estimate undiagnosed and unreported infections, assess HIV prevalence in prisons and other vulnerable settings, investigate pediatric HIV clusters and identify geographical hotspots of transmission.
According to the report, Pakistan has an estimated 369,000 people living with HIV, but only about 84,400 are formally registered while nearly 60,789 are receiving antiretroviral treatment, suggesting that a substantial number of infections remain outside the treatment and surveillance system.
The recommendations stem from investigations into a pediatric HIV outbreak in Taunsa Tehsil of Dera Ghazi Khan, where 127 children tested positive for HIV between December 2024 and April 2025. Nearly 79 percent of the infected children were under five years of age, while most mothers tested HIV-negative, largely ruling out mother-to-child transmission.
The report identified unsafe blood transfusions and contaminated injection practices as the principal drivers of the outbreak. Investigators documented deficiencies in blood screening systems, weak regulation of blood banks, use of non-validated diagnostic kits, reuse of disposable syringes, poor sterilization practices and inadequate infection prevention measures.
It noted that the Taunsa outbreak was not an isolated incident but part of a recurring pattern of healthcare-associated HIV outbreaks in Pakistan, including the 2019 Ratodero outbreak in Sindh that affected more than 1,000 people, mostly children, as well as outbreaks linked to unsafe medical practices in Multan, Gujrat and Sargodha.
The task force concluded that these incidents reflect persistent weaknesses in healthcare regulation, blood safety systems, infection prevention and enforcement against unsafe medical practices and quackery.
