Islamabad: Pakistan’s national HIV register only lists 92,148 people, about 22 percent of the 417,214 estimated to be living with the virus, while 67,878, or hardly about 16 percent of the estimated total, are receiving treatment, according to figures provided by the health ministry.
The difference between the estimate and the registered total is about 325,000 people, or 78 percent of the estimated total. The ministry’s reply does not say how many of them are unaware of their status, so this gap cannot be treated as a count of undiagnosed people.
The figures also show that 3,900 children were registered as HIV-positive between January 2025 and June 2026. Sindh recorded 1,915 registrations and Punjab 1,765, together accounting for 94.4 per cent of the total; the remaining 5.6 per cent were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The registration period does not establish when the children contracted HIV or how they were infected. The reply gives no child-specific breakdown by transmission route, though it identifies unsafe injections, reuse of syringes and medical equipment, weak infection-control practices and inadequately screened blood as risks highlighted by investigations of HIV clusters.
These figures were provided by Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal in replies to questions by MNA Dr Sharmila Faruqui and Ms Nuzhat Sadiq in the National Assembly.
The updated estimate of 417,214 people living with HIV came from a programme overview dated September 22; the question had referred to an earlier estimate of about 350,000.
The replies show an expansion of testing and treatment services, but also gaps in the national data system. HIV tests rose from 37,944 in 2020 to 374,126 in 2025, and the network of antiretroviral treatment centres increased from 98 to 113, including 15 centres added in Sindh during 2026.
The ministry said the national case-based HIV dashboard was operational, but Punjab’s separate management information system was still being integrated. Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan were linked to the national system.
WHO and UNAIDS data cited in the reply put estimated annual new infections at 48,000 in 2024, up from about 16,000 in 2010, an increase of around 200 per cent.
Pakistan is among the Eastern Mediterranean countries with the fastest-growing HIV epidemics, the ministry said, while describing the country’s epidemic as concentrated and prevalence in the general population as below 0.1 per cent.
The government said it was strengthening pre-procedure HIV screening, contact tracing and screening at 14 points of entry. It also cited a phased shift to reuse-prevention syringes, with restrictions on conventional syringes up to 10cc due to take effect on January 1, 2027.