Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing.
Mohammed Amin was eight when he died shortly after testing positive for HIV.
His fevers were so bad that he insisted on sleeping in the rain, and he writhed in pain 'like he'd been thrown in hot oil', says his mother, Sughra.
He used to fight with me, but he also loved me, 10-year-old Asma says as she kneels at her younger brother's graveside.
Not long after her brother contracted the virus, Asma was also diagnosed with HIV. Her family believe both children contracted it from injections with contaminated needles during routine medical treatment at a government hospital in Taunsa, in the province of Punjab, Pakistan.
They are two of the 331 children that BBC Eye has identified as testing positive for HIV in the city between November 2024 and October 2025.
After a doctor at a private clinic linked the outbreak to the hospital, called THQ Taunsa, in late 2024, local authorities promised a massive crackdown and suspended the hospital's medical superintendent in March 2025 – but a BBC Eye investigation can now reveal that dangerous injection practices continued months later.
During 32 hours of undercover filming at THQ Taunsa in late 2025, we witnessed syringes being reused on multi-dose vials of medicine on 10 separate occasions, potentially contaminating the drugs inside. In four of these cases we saw medicine from the same vial given to a different child. We do not know if any of the children were HIV-positive but this practice creates a clear risk of viral transmission.
Even if they have attached a new needle, the back part, which we call the syringe body, has the virus in it, so it will transfer even with a new needle, said Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist and one of Pakistan's leading infectious disease experts, after watching our undercover footage.
Despite signs on the hospital walls showing safe injection practice, we filmed staff – including a doctor – injecting patients without sterile gloves 66 times, and a different expert told us our footage highlighted broader weaknesses in infection control training in Pakistan.
Dr Gul Qaisrani, a doctor at a local private clinic, was the first to spot the outbreak in late 2024 after noticing a rise in the number of children going through his clinic who tested positive for HIV. Almost all of the 65 to 70 children he diagnosed had been treated at THQ Taunsa, he says. He recalls one mother telling him that her daughter was injected with the same syringe as a cousin living with HIV, and that the syringe was then used on several other children.
Dr Fatima Mir, professor of paediatric medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, says our footage highlights weaknesses in infection control training in Pakistan. Our investigation suggests that unsafe practices are in part driven by systemic pressures including a reliance on, and cultural preference for, injections as treatment. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of therapeutic injections in the world, many of them medically unnecessary.
Asma's family say she is losing weight and now faces a lifetime of treatment for a virus she should never have been exposed to. The stigma associated with HIV means that neighbours often stop their children from playing with her, leaving her isolated as well as sick. What is wrong with me? she asks her mother. Standing at her brother's grave, Asma says she misses him. He's with God now. Asma tells BBC Eye she works hard at school. When I grow up, she says, I want to become a doctor.\
Mohammed Amin was eight when he died shortly after testing positive for HIV.
His fevers were so bad that he insisted on sleeping in the rain, and he writhed in pain 'like he'd been thrown in hot oil', says his mother, Sughra.
He used to fight with me, but he also loved me, 10-year-old Asma says as she kneels at her younger brother's graveside.
Not long after her brother contracted the virus, Asma was also diagnosed with HIV. Her family believe both children contracted it from injections with contaminated needles during routine medical treatment at a government hospital in Taunsa, in the province of Punjab, Pakistan.
They are two of the 331 children that BBC Eye has identified as testing positive for HIV in the city between November 2024 and October 2025.
After a doctor at a private clinic linked the outbreak to the hospital, called THQ Taunsa, in late 2024, local authorities promised a massive crackdown and suspended the hospital's medical superintendent in March 2025 – but a BBC Eye investigation can now reveal that dangerous injection practices continued months later.
During 32 hours of undercover filming at THQ Taunsa in late 2025, we witnessed syringes being reused on multi-dose vials of medicine on 10 separate occasions, potentially contaminating the drugs inside. In four of these cases we saw medicine from the same vial given to a different child. We do not know if any of the children were HIV-positive but this practice creates a clear risk of viral transmission.
Even if they have attached a new needle, the back part, which we call the syringe body, has the virus in it, so it will transfer even with a new needle, said Dr Altaf Ahmed, a consultant microbiologist and one of Pakistan's leading infectious disease experts, after watching our undercover footage.
Despite signs on the hospital walls showing safe injection practice, we filmed staff – including a doctor – injecting patients without sterile gloves 66 times, and a different expert told us our footage highlighted broader weaknesses in infection control training in Pakistan.
Dr Gul Qaisrani, a doctor at a local private clinic, was the first to spot the outbreak in late 2024 after noticing a rise in the number of children going through his clinic who tested positive for HIV. Almost all of the 65 to 70 children he diagnosed had been treated at THQ Taunsa, he says. He recalls one mother telling him that her daughter was injected with the same syringe as a cousin living with HIV, and that the syringe was then used on several other children.
Dr Fatima Mir, professor of paediatric medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, says our footage highlights weaknesses in infection control training in Pakistan. Our investigation suggests that unsafe practices are in part driven by systemic pressures including a reliance on, and cultural preference for, injections as treatment. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of therapeutic injections in the world, many of them medically unnecessary.
Asma's family say she is losing weight and now faces a lifetime of treatment for a virus she should never have been exposed to. The stigma associated with HIV means that neighbours often stop their children from playing with her, leaving her isolated as well as sick. What is wrong with me? she asks her mother. Standing at her brother's grave, Asma says she misses him. He's with God now. Asma tells BBC Eye she works hard at school. When I grow up, she says, I want to become a doctor.\
