Islamabad: A total of 103 people died from mosquito-borne diseases in Pakistan’s Sindh during 2025, with 23 of them losing their lives at a hospital in Karachi due to malaria, local media reported on Sunday, citing the data collected from three hospitals in Karachi and one in Hyderabad, local media reported on Sunday.
The statistics gathered from the hospitals contradicts the tally shared by provincial health department, which claims that 33 people died due to dengue and malaria. At least 103 people died due to mosquito-borne illnesses, including malaria, according to the data collected from four hospitals – Indus Hospital, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital & Research Centre (SIDH&RC) and Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad/Jamshoro (LUH), Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported.
A total of 8,883 dengue cases were reported at the Indus Hospital in 2025, with 40 deaths. Among those, 18 patients, who were brought to the hospital in critical condition, died at the emergency department, Dawn reported, citing sources. Furthermore, 2,719 malaria patients reported at the hospital, with 23 deaths from the parasitic disease. Among those, six patients died at the emergency department in the hospital.
A total of 941 cases of mosquito-borne diseases, which included 651 cases of dengue and 290 cases of malaria. The hospital reported 14 deaths due to dengue fever while no death was reported due to malaria.
The media outlet could not collect comprehensive data from the AKUH. However, sources said that at least six patients died due to dengue between January-October last year. Sources at the LUH revealed that 25 people died due to dengue fever at the hospital in 2025, Dawn reported.
However, as per the official data, as many as 20,502 dengue fever cases were reported in Sindh with 33 deaths and more than 90 per cent of these cases were reported in Karachi. According to the official data, a total of 283,140 malaria cases were reported in Sindh with no death.
Sources at these hospitals revealed that government did not have a system to transparently gather data, at least from hospitals and labs that operate in Sindh, a large number of patients consulted general physicians who provide treatment at small clinics and many of them died at home, signalling that the public health crisis witnessed in 2025 was much bigger and serious than it was reflected.
(IANS)
