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.