A BBC Eye investigation has identified 331 children who tested positive for HIV in Taunsa, Pakistan between November 2024 and October 2025, linking the outbreak to a government hospital where syringes were reused on patients. During 32 hours of undercover filming at THQ Taunsa hospital, reporters witnessed staff reusing syringes on 10 separate occasions, potentially contaminating multi-dose vials of medicine. A consultant microbiologist confirmed the practice creates a "clear risk of viral transmission" even with new needles attached. The provincial Aids programme lists "contaminated needle" as the transmission mode in over half the cases.

Local authorities suspended the hospital's medical superintendent in March 2025 after a private doctor, Dr Gul Qaisrani, first flagged the outbreak—but BBC footage filmed months later shows dangerous injection practices persisted. Undercover video captured staff, including a doctor, injecting patients without sterile gloves 66 times, and nurses rummaging through medical waste bins with bare hands. The new medical superintendent, Dr Qasim Buzdar, refused to acknowledge the footage was genuine, claiming it could have been staged or recorded before his tenure. Out of 97 children with HIV whose families were tested, only four mothers were also positive—suggesting the vast majority of cases stemmed from medical reuse rather than mother-to-child transmission.

The families of two dead children—eight-year-old Mohammed Amin and his sister Asma, 10—believe they contracted HIV from contaminated injections at THQ Taunsa. Their mother tested negative. A joint Unicef-WHO inspection report obtained by BBC Eye found the same unsafe practices investigators documented, including reused IV fluids and unlabelled cannulas. The Punjab government maintains no "validated epidemiological evidence" has conclusively established the hospital as the outbreak's source.