How hundreds of children were infected with HIV in one Pakistani district
ISLAMABAD - In February, a handful of parents in southern Pakistan's Larkana district brought their children to physician Imran Arbani's clinic with similar symptoms, including pneumonia and uncontrollable fever. Arbani eventually asked a father to have his 16-month-old daughter tested for HIV.
"He got angry with me," Arbani recalled. "He knew HIV was often spread through unsafe sex. He was an educated person but it took me a good two or three hours to convince him" to get his daughter checked.
The test came back positive. Six weeks later, Arbani had confirmed 20 HIV cases
