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Hospital at centre of child HIV outbreak caught reusing syringes in Pakistan

178 points by flykespice

by satya71

9 subcomments

This is common practice in much of developed world. Long ago, they used to have re-usable glass syringes that could be sterilized. Unfortunately, people switched to disposable syringes. The unit costs are...high in the US, unreasonable in developing countries.
It's not just this hospital, it's widespread ([1] report 38%)
[1] https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-26-2020/volume-26-issue...

by dwa3592

1 subcomments

I was in middle school when we were taught that used syringes were one of the causes of HIV. Can't believe a hospital would do this!!!

by foragerdev

0 subcomment

All the Americans/Westerns telling Pakistan is a poor country, it's your governments which are responsible. For the context, US/EU has been sponsoring military governments by toppling Democratically elected governments because some democratically elected Politian's are not as submissive as a corrupt Army general.
Latest case, in which an elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from the office due to US sponsored regime change operations by Pakistan Army. Trumps current favorite Field Marshal Asim Munir as he is serving US as Imran Khan could not (US demanded air bases after it exited US from Afghanistan, which was denied by the elected PM and soon after he was ousted). And later, US kept silence over the election delayed in 2023, And then election was stolen in 2024, and everyone knows that Pakistan Army did still US/EU kept silence. Here people talking about poverty and low income about Pakistan.
Since US/EU sponsored government directly ruled by Army and Trumps favorite field marshal Pakistan has not progressed even 1% since then. People income fallen more than 50% more than 60% people is living below poverty. All because of the hypocrisy of US/EU governments. If you guys care so much about people, at least force your governments to not support such regimes. That would be enough for the people of the country. Instead of telling them that they are poor or xyz.
What I described is just a recent history, we go deeper in the history, history is full of such incidents. And I further do not take it as if I am putting total blame on foreign powers, Pakistanis are to be blame as well. But foreign powers sponsor such regimes all the over the world to have control on certain regions.

by geor9e

0 subcomment

There's obviously terrible procedures happening at this clinic, involving contamination, but that one video doesn't seem like the culprit. Notice he removes the needle, then injects medicine into a cannula tube, not flesh. He then re-attaches the needle, draws the second dose, and injects again. That was the problem. The narrator says he then used a brand new syringe for every child, but that initial procedure contaminated the vial. Cannula tubes are primed with saline, that's kind of a long gap for blood to travel to contaminate the vial. Yes he did it wrong, but I get why he thought it would be ok.

by jaypatelani

4 subcomments

US should rather sanction Pakistan than getting IMF loan to it.

by halperter

2 subcomments

https://archive.is/a9p1X
Does anyone have alternative archival sites? I want to switch away from archive.today because of the uncivil behavior [1] but can't find any other archival sites that can unpaywall websites.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-might-...

by aussieguy1234

2 subcomments

One way to think of infection control best practice with needles like this.
The cost of a new needle, syringe or new gloves is quite cheap.
The cost of an infection is high.
The cost of a HIV infection is life altering.
So, its clear that whoever did this thought that whatever small savings they obtained from not using a fresh syringe was more important to them than the high likelihood their patients would get infections, including HIV.

by t1234s

4 subcomments

[flagged]

by temptemptemp111

0 subcomment

[dead]

by calvinmorrison

0 subcomment

expect nothing less from a country that has the largest slave population in the world.