KARACHI: Over 1,000 patients tested positive for dengue fever on Monday across the province that saw another death from the mosquito-borne viral infection, raising the official tally to 27 since October this year.
According to the provincial health department’s data, the latest mortality occurred at Liaquat University, Hospital, Hyderabad, where the victim — a 30-year-old male resident of Noorani Basti — had remained under treatment for a week.
A day earlier, a teenage girl died of dengue fever at Karachi’s Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre (SIDH&RC).
Official data show that thousands of people in the province are currently ill with flu-like symptoms; out of the total 7,548 patients tested for dengue fever over the last 24 hours, 1,212 patients tested positive.
In Karachi division, 765 patients tested positive for dengue out of the 6,166 patients tested for the illness. In Hyderabad, 447 patients tested positive out of the total 1,382 tested.
This month, the provincial dengue tally has risen to 7,173 while cumulative cases this year have reached 12,750.
Currently, 257 and 176 patients are being treated for the illness at public and private hospitals, respectively.
Given the persisting public health crisis, health experts have called upon the government to immediately declare a health emergency in the most affected divisions of Karachi and Hyderabad, and launch effective vector-control measures.
They also called for an independent audit of the provincial dengue prevention and control programme and for oversight of municipal services to identify and hold accountable the officials responsible for the worsening situation.
Dengue (break-bone fever) is a viral infection caused by the dengue virus (DENV), which is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Symptoms are usually flu-like condition but can worsen to severe dengue (dengue hemorrhagic fever), a life-threatening condition. Getting infected a second time increases risk of serious symptoms.
During the first to five days of fever, an infected person can transmit the virus to mosquitoes, which can then infect others.
According to the WHO, several factors are associated with the increasing risk of spread of the dengue epidemic, including the changing distribution of the responsible vectors; climate change leading to increasing temperatures, high rainfall and humidity; fragile and overburdened health systems; limitations in surveillance and reporting; and political and financial instabilities in countries facing complex humanitarian crises and high population movements.
Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2025.