Islamabad, Nov 13 (IANS) Two more women have died due to dengue in Karachi and Hyderabad, raising the death toll in Pakistan’s Sindh to 29 in 2025, according to province’s Health Department, local media reported on Thursday.
The department said one of the patients who died due to dengue lived in Liaquatabad area of Karachi. According to the department, 5,412 tests were conducted in Sindh during the last 24 hours. Among these, 976 people tested positive for dengue, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported.
A total of 3,951 tests were conducted in Karachi division, out of which 528 tested positive. In Hyderabad division, 1,461 tests were carried out with 448 confirmed cases.
Health Secretary Rehan Baloch stated that 127 new dengue patients were admitted to government hospitals while 84 were taken to private hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, 96 patients were discharged from government hospitals while 79 were discharged from private hospitals after recovery.
So far in October, 8,331 dengue cases have been reported in Sindh, increasing the total number of cases in 2025 to 13,908.
Presently, 269 patients are receiving treatment in government hospitals and 184 in private hospitals in Sindh.
Last week, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) urged the government to declare a health emergency in the most affected parts of Sindh’s Karachi and Hyderabad and start taking effective vector-control measures, as per the Dawn report.
The association demanded an independent audit of Sindh’s dengue prevention and control programme and monitoring municipal services to find and hold the officials responsible for the deteriorating situation accountable.
“The dengue crisis is a man-made tragedy rooted in the systemic dysfunction of government bodies. The lack of political will to ensure sanitation, waste management, and timely and effective fumigation has turned our cities into breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquito. Every death reported is a verdict on the failure of the local government and the provincial Health Department,” it said. It also slammed delayed and ineffective fumigation and what it termed as a “collapse of municipal services”.
–IANS
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