LAHORE: Four patients undergoing dialysis at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital (THQ), Mian Channu, have tested positive for HIV, raising fresh concerns about infection-control practices at healthcare facilities in south Punjab.

According to the reports available with Dawn, the patients, including three women, who had been receiving dialysis at the hospital tested positive for the deadly virus after initial diagnosis.

The hospital administration has referred them to the Nishtar Hospital Multan for further medical evaluation and treatment and they are currently under treatment there.

The Mian Channu hospital officials told the media that more than 60 patients were receiving dialysis at the facility and HIV could not be transmitted through the dialysis process. They said that they were assessing the situation.

Infected patients, including three women, sent to Multan’s Nishtar Hospital

Sources, however, said that more dialysis patients might also have tested positive but the officials did not confirm more cases.

In recent years, several HIV cases were reported in the healthcare facilities in Punjab.

In November 2024, around 30 kidney patients at the Nishtar Hospital were reported to have contracted HIV during dialysis, while one patient died after developing complications. A Punjab government fact-finding committee subsequently confirmed an HIV/AIDS outbreak in the hospital’s nephrology unit and identified violations of dialysis guidelines and standard operating procedures.

A scientific study published in 2026, involving researchers from the Aga Khan University and the Punjab AIDS Control Programme, found that the Multan dialysis cases were closely linked and provided evidence that the infections originated within the healthcare setting. The Punjab government ordered proceedings under the PEEDA Act against senior officials and medical staff over alleged negligence and mismanagement related to the outbreak in Nishtar Hospital Multan in January 2025.

Another major HIV-related crisis had emerged in Taunsa where 106 children tested HIV positive and they were registered with the AIDS Control Programme in March 2025. The government had established a screening and treatment centre at the THQ hospital and ordered action against senior local health officials. Later, a joint mission involving WHO, Unicef, UNAIDS and other partners carried out door-to-door screening of around 50,000 people in the affected area. It also said auto-disable syringes were supplied to government hospitals and that hundreds of clinics allegedly being run by quacks were sealed.

The Punjab AIDS Control Programme says it provides free HIV testing, counselling, treatment, diagnostic services and follow-up care and treatment centres were established in districts, including Lahore, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, and more than 14,000 patients were receiving free treatment.

At the federal level, the National AIDS Control Programme says 84,421 HIV cases were registered in Pakistan by December 2025, of whom 60,785 were receiving antiretroviral therapy at 98 centres.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026