Paediatrician accused of reusing syringes after 900 children diagnosed with HIV

 Nearly 900 children have been diagnosed with HIV in a small city in Pakistan [Image: AFP/Getty Images]

At least 900 children have tested positive for HIV amid allegations a paediatrician repeatedly reused old syringes in Pakistan.

Muzaffar Ghanghro has been charged with negligence, manslaughter and causing unintentional harm following the outbreak in the small city of Ratodero in April.

The paediatrician, believed to have been charging 16p per visit for the area's poorest parents, works as a GP at a government hospital.

So far 1,100 people are positive for the virus but health officials fear the number of those infected could be far higher as less than a quarter of the city's 200,000 population has been tested.

 The epidemic is thought to have been spread largely through the reuse of infected syringes [Image: AFP/Getty Images]

The outbreak came to light when residents fell sick with fevers that resisted treatment, leading to a frenzied panic as they rushed to get tested for the virus.

Health officials then revealed that many of the infected children had gone to the same paediatrician, Ghanghro.

Local journalist Gulbahar Shaikh got his children tested as they had been treated by the suspect and was horrified to discover his two-year-old daughter had the virus.

 Health officials fear the total number of those infected may be higher as only around a quarter of the city's population has been tested [Image: AFP/Getty Images]

Another resident, Imtiaz Jalbani, said Ghanghro treated all six of his children and four of them contracted HIV.

His 14-month-old child and three-year-old daughter have now died.

He alleges that he saw the paediatrician rummage through rubbish for a syringe to use on his six-year-old son - who also has the virus - and that when confronted Ghanghro claimed he was only doing so because Mr Jalbani was too poor to pay for a new one, according to The New York Times. 

Ghanghro reportedly insisted he is innocent and never reused syringes, and health officials have said he is unlikely to be the only cause of the outbreak, as there was evidence of numerous doctors reusing syringes.