ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s senior paediatricians have urged the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) to immediately declare the growing paediatric HIV crisis a national emergency, constitute an expert panel of infectious disease specialists, and take the lead in investigating and preventing the rapidly increasing HIV infections among children across the country.
The call came through a strongly worded letter written by Dr Muhammad Khalid Shafi, member of the central executive committee (CEC) and former general secretary of the PPA, to the association’s president and current GS.
Dr Shafi expressed serious concern over what he described as the PPA’s silence despite an unprecedented rise in paediatric HIV infections, and urged an emergency CEC meeting to address the crisis.
The letter comes in the wake of official HIV surveillance data showing Pakistan recording 14,182 new HIV cases during 2025, compared with 9,713 in 2024. The country had reported 12,731 new HIV infections in 2023.
Official figures also show that 94 antiretroviral therapy centres are currently providing free HIV diagnosis and treatment services across Pakistan, with 72,515 HIV-positive people having been registered at these centres by the end of 2024.
The latest surveillance data also indicates that 2,108 children were diagnosed with HIV during 2025, 1,065 of them boys and 683 girls, while another 360 children were diagnosed during the first three months of 2026 alone, suggesting paediatric HIV transmission remains a major public health concern.
Dr Shafi warned that the situation has become visibly catastrophic in Sindh, while cases are also increasing rapidly in Punjab and Islamabad. He said that the actual burden in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan is likely much higher because of limited HIV testing facilities, meaning many infected children can still be going undiagnosed.
He also said Pakistan’s healthcare system lacks the capacity to cope with the growing number of HIV-infected children, and criticised the PPA for remaining silent and passive despite being the country’s leading professional body representing child health.
He urged the PPA to immediately constitute an emergency panel of paediatric infectious disease experts to investigate the factors driving the increase in paediatric HIV, work with the provincial authorities to strengthen surveillance, and develop standardised national guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV transmission among children.
The letter also criticises the federal government’s decision to ban conventional disposable syringes, particularly the widely used 10cc syringe. Dr Shafi argued that while preventing syringe reuse is important, the blanket ban can seriously disrupt paediatric and neonatal care without addressing the underlying causes of unsafe injection practices.
According to the letter, 10cc syringes are routinely used for dilution of intravenous medicines, feeding newborns through nasogastric and orogastric tubes, and administering accurate oral doses to infants. He urged the PPA to engage regulators and advocate for evidence-based infection-prevention measures rather than allowing policies that can adversely affect patient care.
He also urged the PPA leadership to immediately place both the paediatric HIV emergency and the syringe policy on the agenda of an emergency CEC meeting, saying that the country’s leading paediatric body must take the lead in protecting Pakistan’s children during a rapidly evolving public health crisis.
