BBC finds unsafe injections at Taunsa hospital after HIV outbreak

Medical personnel preparing syringes before administering vaccinations in a clinical setting. — CONTEXTUAL IMAGE Medical personnel prepare syringes before vaccinations in a 2003 photograph. Used as contextual imagery for infection-control reporting; it does not depict Taunsa Tehsil Headquarters Hospital. Photo: U.S. Navy / Elizabeth Thompson via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

What happened

A BBC Eye Investigations report published on 14 April 2026 found that “serious malpractices” continued in the children’s ward of a government hospital in Punjab’s Taunsa, months after the facility was linked to an outbreak of HIV among children, according to Dawn.

The broadcaster said it filmed undercover inside the children’s ward in late 2025 after an insider said nothing had changed. It reported footage showing nurses injecting patients through their clothes, dirty syringes being handed over for re-use, and unqualified volunteers injecting children from a blood-contaminated vial. It also described medical waste handled with bare hands, exposed needles, and staff shortages that pushed workers to reuse equipment or share medicines.

The BBC said at least 331 children in Taunsa tested positive for HIV between November 2024 and October 2025, and that 19 new cases had been identified in the preceding four months. It reported that nine children had died after contracting the disease. A consultant microbiologist who reviewed the footage, Dr Altaf Ahmed, was quoted as saying it showed a high risk of transmitting blood-borne diseases, including HIV.

Why it matters

A surge in HIV cases at Taunsa Tehsil Headquarters Hospital was reported in late 2024, with 106 children initially found to be infected. The BBC said the hospital’s medical superintendent was suspended in March 2025 after authorities promised a “massive crackdown”, but that its investigation indicated the unsafe practices persisted. It also reported that the suspended official had been re-appointed weeks later to another government clinic in Punjab.

In a rebuttal reported by Dawn, the Punjab health department said all cases mentioned in the BBC report dated from December 2024 or 2025 and that action had already been taken. It said a joint mission involving UNAIDS, Unicef, the World Health Organization and the provincial Common Management Unit had screened a population of 50,000 and that 331 patients under the age of 12 had been identified. It said 5,000 people had been screened at a centre set up at the hospital, that auto-disable syringes had been supplied to government hospitals, and that 240 clinics run by quacks had been sealed with nine first information reports registered.

What is still uncertain

The cause of the outbreak remains disputed. The local government told the BBC that “no validated epidemiological evidence” had “conclusively established THQ as a source” of the outbreak, and the current medical superintendent said the footage might have been staged. The BBC reported that infections among children in Taunsa were still being detected and that a joint mission would continue to assess the spread.