Rabia, 5, Gulshad, 5, Sarif, 4, and Ilyas, 3, in February. The children, all H.I.V.-positive, live in a village outside Ratodero.
Sarah Caron for The New York Times
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Article Author: The city losing its children to HIV
Media Source: New York Times (USA)
Date: 1 April 2021
In Ratodero, a remote city in Pakistan, two children had been receiving ongoing treatment in a local hospital but were not getting better. They were tested for HIV by the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi, cited as "one of the country’s premier academic medical centres." Upon testing more children in Ratodero, 14…
In Ratodero, a remote city in Pakistan, two children had been receiving ongoing treatment in a local hospital but were not getting better. They were tested for HIV by the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi, cited as "one of the country’s premier academic medical centres." Upon testing more children in Ratodero, 14 paediatric patients under the age of 10 were diagnosed with HIV. Some families travel for seven hours to receive treatment at the AKUH, on account of its top tier medical facilities and care. Fatima Mir, who runs the paediatric HIV clinic at the AKUH in Karachi, was one of the doctors who went to Ratodero to help with the emergency response there. She said that upon diagnosis, a "child will live with a chronic condition all their lives." Pakistan’s national Ministry of Health has sent an international team, with support from the AKU, UN agencies, the World Health Organisation, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, to Ratodero to thoroughly examine the outbreak.