SHC orders formation of committee to probe HIV outbreak among children at Karachi hospital

The Sindh High Court has ordered the provincial government to form an independent committee to investigate the HIV outbreak among children at Karachi's Kulsum Bai Valika Hospital. Dawn reports that Sindh government data shows at least seventy-eight children infected at the hospital, with a further one hundred twenty cases confirmed in screening of the surrounding area, though the petitioner's lawyer puts the true total closer to two hundred. The court, which found existing departmental reports insufficient to establish how the virus spread, directed that the panel probe whether syringes were reused or improperly handled and report back within two months. In the meantime, the court ordered that all affected children receive free, uninterrupted medical treatment.

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