Panic Ensues in Pakistani City After 900 Kids Test Positive for HIV: BREAKING

The city of Ratodero in Pakistan is reeling and in panic after 900 children tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The New York Times reports that health workers in the city say reusing syringes led to the outbreak. “When officials descended on Ratodero to investigate, they discovered that many of the infected children had gone to the same pediatrician, Muzaffar Ghanghro, who served the city’s poorest families and appeared to be at the center of the outbreak. Mr. Shaikh panicked — that was his children’s pediatrician. He rushed his family to be tested, and his 2-year-old daughter was confirmed to have the virus, which is the cause of AIDS.”

“It was devastating,” said Mr. Shaikh, a 44-year-old television journalist in Ratodero, a city of 200,000 whose residents are some of Pakistan’s poorest, with high illiteracy rates.

Read the full NYTs story here.