Each monsoon, as reliably as flooded streets and overflowing nullahs, Pakistan braces for the return of dengue fever. This year’s warning signs had emerged earlier than usual. In July, Karachi confirmed its first dengue fatality of 2025 even before the season’s peak. By then, Sindh had already logged nearly 300 cases. Yet those relatively modest figures lulled authorities into complacency. Come October, the virus surged across Punjab and Islamabad. Lahore reported 19 new infections in a single day, bringing its total to 275, while the twin cities recorded 63 cases within 24 hours, pushing the three-month tally past 790 in government hospitals. Health officials privately admit the real number is far higher, with many patients seeking private treatment or self-medication at home, slipping past official statistics.
This resurgence was predictable and preventable. Pakistan’s major cities continue to act as if dengue is an annual surprise rather than a chronic emergency. Islamabad’s administration, for instance, sprang into action only after larvae were found at 916 sites across the capital last week. Punjab officials also insist they are mobilising every possible measure, but those measures have come after months of inaction when early vector control could have stemmed the tide. The result is depressingly familiar: hospitals overwhelmed, blood banks stretched thin, and citizens left to fight a disease that the state seems to confront only when it becomes unmissable.
According to health experts, Pakistan recorded over 78,000 dengue cases in 2023, one of the worst years since the virus became endemic. The pattern is unmistakable as post-monsoon surges follow heavy rains, flooding, and waste accumulation. Still, the federal and provincial governments continue to treat outbreaks as isolated incidents rather than symptoms of a systemic governance failure. Even this year, officials had ample warning. Punjab’s catastrophic summer floods created textbook breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti, yet coordinated anti-larval operations remained patchy. By the time fumigation drives began, mosquitoes had already spread beyond control.
Not all news is grim. In parts of Rawalpindi, proactive community surveillance and early door-to-door awareness campaigns have halved the case count compared to last year. Punjab’s integrated control system, refined after the devastating 2011 epidemic, briefly kept the province dengue-free through June. However, these successes underline, rather than offset, the national deficit in sustained vigilance. Pakistan lacks a unified, year-round dengue management strategy. Provinces continue to duplicate efforts rather than share intelligence, laboratories, or vector-mapping tools. The absence of real-time data sharing, especially from private clinics, means the state is fighting an invisible enemy with incomplete maps.
Dengue has haunted Pakistan for over fifteen years, and its persistence stands as an indictment of our public health priorities. To end this annual ordeal, Pakistan must shift from reaction to prevention and from slogans to systems. *