Another year, and another dengue outbreak pushes Pakistan’s health system to its knees. In Sindh, the situation has turned alarming, with hundreds of new cases emerging in the past 24 hours. At least 25 lives have been lost in the province since October, including children, and that is only the official count. Punjab is not far behind. Rawalpindi alone reported 33 new cases on Saturday despite a drop in mercury, pushing the province’s total this year past 3,000. The Pakistan Medical Association is now pleading with authorities to declare a health emergency in the hardest-hit cities. Their demand is painfully obvious: we need effective vector control now, not tomorrow. Yet responses from governments remain tepid, as if in denial that an epidemic is raging in our streets.
This dengue crisis is no natural calamity. It is a man-made tragedy rooted in systemic dysfunction. Decades of neglected sanitation and hollow municipal services have turned our cities into mosquito breeding grounds. The result (if one even needs to wonder) is the health emergency now unfolding.
Every dengue death is a verdict on the failure of local governments and health departments. Frustrated citizens are dragging authorities to court for negligence. Meanwhile, government data resembles fiction even in the midst of an outbreak. Figures remain implausibly low, arguably because cases diagnosed at private clinics are ignored. It is an open secret. And this data dysfunction has consequences. It breeds complacency and confusion, delaying action when urgency is essential. Between shortages of testing kits and slow fumigation drives, how much more institutional failure must the public endure?
Experts suspect a more virulent dengue strain is circulating this year, with patients taking longer to recover. Dengue, in effect, is evolving into a year-round threat. The World Health Organisation reports over 4 million dengue cases and 2,800 deaths worldwide in 2025; the highest ever recorded. From South Asia to Latin America, public-health systems are struggling.
But while other nations treat dengue as the emergency it is, Pakistan remains stuck in a cycle of denial and delay. We comfort ourselves with half-measures and hope the winter chill will bail us out yet again.
Enough is enough. It is unacceptable that Pakistan faces the same dengue nightmare every year while leaders fail to learn or act. This must change. Now. We need to move on a war footing against dengue. That means massive, coordinated cleanup campaigns to remove stagnant water, clear garbage dumps, and cover open drains–not once, but continuously. It means free testing and treatment at all hospitals, public and private, so patients are not left to suffer. It means widespread fumigation before outbreaks explode, not as a last-minute remedy.
And critically, Pakistan needs an integrated disease-surveillance system that tracks dengue in real time to guide proactive response. No more flying blind. We must identify circulating strains, stockpile medicines and diagnostic kits, and hold negligent officials accountable when they fail. These steps are not extraordinary. They are basic governance and public health 101.
