Bloodborne HIV: Don't Get Stuck!

On 21 July 2019, at an international HIV/AIDS conference in Mexico, Farima Mir reported an ongoing investigation in Ratodero, Pakistan, that has found hundreds of children with HIV from healthcare[1]:

“At the end of April, 46 children in the city tested positive for HIV. And within 2 days, 14 more children were reported in nearby towns. The government mounted a response, screening around 32,000 people… Ultimately, over 770 of the 997 reported new infections were in young children, most from ages 2 to 5 years… Mir said that almost all children who tested positive for HIV had ‘repeated injections for any illness,’ meaning reused syringes were likely to blame.”

What happened in Pakistan echoes what has been found elsewhere, for example, Russia in 1988, Romania in 1989, Libya in 1998, etc (for more information about these and other HIV outbreaks from health care click on “outbreaks and unexpected infections” in the menu at the right of this page).

Almost surely there are many similar outbreaks of HIV from reused and unsterilized syringes, needles, razors, needles and tubes for infusions, and other health care instruments in African countries with the world’s worst HIV epidemics. But no government in sub-Saharan Africa has looked to find and stop HIV from unsafe health care! Whereas Government of Pakistan protects people by investigating unexpected HIV infections, governments of sub-Saharan Africa stick their heads in the sand. How many more people will get HIV from health care in Africa before governments investigate unexpected infections to find and stop the problem?

References

1. Walker M. ‘Man-Made Disasters’ Stymie Progress on Global HIV. Medpage Today 22 July 2019. Available at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/ias/81150 (accessed 23 July 2019).