These stories caused anxiety on three counts:

1) The discovery of small children suffering from HIV/AIDS did not cause
official or public outrage of the kind expected of a society that keeps boasting
of its commitment to promoting children’s rights.

2) The cases of HIV/AIDS in Ratodero were treated as a sudden occurrence. If

tests had been conducted on a regular basis, the authorities might have
discovered the horrible situation earlier.

3) The pro-establishment elite showed more interest in denouncing Sindh

government than in the suffering of patients. Reports of HIV/AIDS cases in
Punjab seem to have been withheld. Eventually, the death of a woman in
Punjab was admitted but a report of some 2,000 cases in the province was
played down. The spread of HIV/AIDS is too serious a matter to be exploited
for political gain or to be trivialised.

Out of the total 2,091 state-run health facilities, the ARV (anti rabbies vaccine)
not available in two teaching hospitals, five district headquarters hospitals, 27
tehsil headquarters hospitals, 1,621 basic health units and 77 rural health
centres of Punjab.