An undercover investigation by the British public service broadcaster has found that unsafe injection practices continued inside THQ Hospital Taunsa months after Punjab authorities cracked down over an HIV outbreak among children, with covert footage showing reused syringes, contaminated medication and untrained individuals injecting patients on a government ward. This daunting investigation has raised fresh questions over oversight in one of the most disturbing public health episodes to hit the province in years.
The documentary, Stolen Lives: Who gave our children HIV?, released by BBC Eye, documents conditions inside the hospital’s paediatric unit in late 2025, where nurses were filmed injecting children through their clothes, passing on used syringes for reuse and allowing unqualified volunteers to administer injections from a single blood-contaminated vial. The filming was carried out after a hospital insider told the BBC that conditions had not changed despite official intervention earlier that year.
The scale of the outbreak appears far larger than the number first publicly acknowledged. It had first come to light in early 2025, when doctors in private clinics in Taunsa began identifying an unusual number of HIV-positive children and traced a common link to treatment at the government hospital. Parents reported that syringes appeared to be reused and that basic hygiene protocols were not being followed.
Media sources reported in March 2025 that 106 children had been registered with the AIDS control programme after screening began at THQ Taunsa. These numbers were also acknowledged by Punjab health authorities, whihc ordered a “massive crackdown” and suspended the hospital’s medical superintendent. However, the BBC’s new investigation suggests that unsafe practices continued on the ward months after those actions were announced. It claims that at least 331 children in Taunsa tested positive for HIV between November 2024 and October 2025. Of the parents who agreed to testing, fewer than one in 20 were HIV-positive, narrowing the likely source of infection to clinical exposure rather than transmission within households.
The footage also captured broader infection control failures, including staff handling medical waste with bare hands, exposed needles and syringes left unattended, and the presence of unqualified volunteers inside a ward where they are officially barred. Hospital staff appeared to be operating under pressure, with shortages of supplies and personnel contributing to practices such as sharing medication between patients and asking families to purchase medicines themselves.
Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist who reviewed the undercover footage, said the practices observed posed a severe risk of transmission. “The chances are very high,” he said, because the vial is contaminated.
The outbreak was first flagged in late 2024 by local physician Dr Gul Qaisrani, who told the BBC that almost all of the 65 to 70 HIV-positive children he saw had previously been treated at THQ Taunsa. The documentary says that of 97 families tested, only four mothers were HIV-positive, a finding that sharply weakens the case for mother-to-child transmission as the principal source and points investigators back toward unsafe medical care.
Punjab authorities responded by launching screening at the hospital, setting up a treatment centre and directing the Punjab Healthcare Commission to act against suspected quack clinics. A joint review meeting was also convened in April 2025 under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to assess the rise in cases and examine possible causes.
Hospital officials disputed the findings. The current medical superintendent, Dr Qasim Buzdar, said the footage may have been recorded before his tenure or staged, and maintained that infection prevention controls were being followed. In a statement, local authorities said that “no validated epidemiological evidence” had “conclusively established THQ as a source” of the outbreak.
The previous medical superintendent, Dr Tayyab Chandio, also denied responsibility. The BBC reported that he was reassigned to another government facility within weeks of his suspension from THQ Taunsa and continues to treat patients. Officials said no inquiry outcome had legally barred him from practice.
The human cost runs through the documentary with crushing force. It recounts the case of eight-year-old Mohammed Amin, who was diagnosed in late 2025 and died before treatment could take hold, and of his 10-year-old sister Asma, who also tested positive after both children had received injections at THQ Taunsa. Their mother tested negative for HIV.
Asma remains on daily medication. Her family says she has been isolated in her community since her diagnosis. “She asks her mother, ‘What is wrong with me? Other children don’t play with me; they won’t even walk with me,'” her uncle said. Asma told the BBC she hopes to become a doctor.
Health officials say infections among children in Taunsa are still being detected, with 19 new cases identified in the past four months. At least nine children linked to the outbreak have died.
The Taunsa outbreak has revived older fears. During the 2019 Ratodero crisis in Sindh, more than 750 people were diagnosed with HIV within weeks, with children accounting for around 80 per cent of cases; by November that year, 895 infections had been confirmed, including 754 children. WHO and UNAIDS now estimate that about 350,000 people are living with HIV in Pakistan, nearly eight in ten of them unaware of their status, while new infections among children aged 0 to 14 have risen from 530 in 2010 to 1,800 in 2023. WHO has also warned that unsafe medical injections remain a major driver of blood-borne infections in the country, including hepatitis C.