Karachi Dengue 2026: Sindh Cases More Than Tripled in August
Suspected dengue cases in Sindh rose from 51 to 173 a week in August 2026. See the official figures, Karachi's first death this year and where to get tested.
Suspected dengue cases in Sindh more than tripled in August 2026, from 51 in the first full week of the month to 173 in the last, according to the federal disease surveillance bulletin. Karachi's first dengue death of 2026 was reported in March.
Those weekly figures come from the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) bulletin of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Islamabad. It collects reports from districts across Pakistan every week. We read the week 32 and week 35 bulletins ourselves. They are the latest two we could open.
The Sindh Health Department does not publish its own dengue counts on its website. We checked its notifications and news pages on 30 September 2026 and found no dengue report. So its figures below are the ones given to the press, and we say so each time.
Sindh dengue cases rose sharply through August 2026
Sindh reported 173 suspected dengue cases in week 35 of 2026, the last week of August, up from 51 in week 32. The NIH bulletin also lists dengue among the diseases that increased that week. Punjab did not report into the bulletin, so it gives no national total.
| NIH IDSR bulletin, 2026 | Week 32 (early August) | Week 35 (late August) |
|---|---|---|
| Suspected dengue cases, Sindh | 51 | 173 |
| Suspected dengue cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | 65 | 263 |
| Suspected dengue cases, Balochistan | 3 | 1 |
| Punjab | Not reported | Not reported |
| Total in the bulletin | 119 | 437 |
These are suspected cases. The bulletin says so on its own overview page: every case in the weekly tables is a suspected case, not one confirmed by a laboratory. A person with fever and body pain may be counted before any test is done.
The bulletin does not break dengue down by Karachi district. Its Sindh district table lists only the most common diseases, and dengue is not among them. So we cannot say how many of the 173 were in Karachi.
Laboratory tests in Sindh found 95 positive dengue cases in one week
Sindh's public health laboratories tested 1,529 people for dengue in week 35 and found 95 positive, the NIH bulletin shows. In week 32 they tested 1,289 and found 77 positive. That is about 6 per cent of tests in both weeks.
Laboratory figures are firmer than suspected cases, because a test was actually done. But they cover only the public health laboratories that report to the NIH. Private laboratories and many hospital labs are not in that table.
So the real number of dengue infections in Sindh is higher than any single figure here. Treat the trend as the useful part: far more suspected cases at the end of August than at the start, and more positive tests too.
Karachi reported its first dengue death of 2026 in March
Karachi's first dengue death of 2026 was a 20-year-old woman from PIB Colony in District East, according to a Sindh Health Department report as given to the press in April. She was admitted on 11 March and died on 16 March.
At that point, the department's count was 198 dengue cases in Sindh for the year, 163 of them in Karachi Division, as reported. Hyderabad Division had 24, Mirpurkhas Division 8 and Sukkur Division 3.
We could not find a later 2026 death toll or a later provincial total from the department. We found no official report of a second dengue death in Karachi this year. That does not mean there has been none. It means none was published where we could read it.
For scale, the 2025 season was far larger. By mid-November 2025, the department's reported figures showed 13,908 dengue infections in Sindh for the year and 29 deaths. Of those, 8,331 were reported in the first 13 days of November alone. The worst of a Karachi dengue season can come after September.
Where to get a dengue test in Karachi
Go to a government hospital or your nearest public health facility if you have a high fever with severe body pain. We could not find a 2026 Sindh Health Department notice saying dengue tests are free, so ask about any charge at the counter before the test.
The two blood tests doctors usually order are simple. An NS1 antigen test can show dengue in the first few days of fever. A complete blood count (CBC) checks your platelets, the blood cells that help stop bleeding. Dengue can make them fall fast.
- Note the day your fever started. The NS1 test works best in the first days.
- Go to a government hospital or a public health facility and ask for a dengue test.
- Ask whether the NS1 test and the CBC are free or charged, before the sample is taken.
- Take paracetamol only for fever and drink plenty of fluids while you wait for the result.
- Go back at once if you see bleeding, severe stomach pain or repeated vomiting.
Do not take aspirin or ibuprofen for a suspected dengue fever. Both raise the risk of bleeding. The full list of dengue warning signs tells you when a fever becomes an emergency, usually just as the fever starts to fall.
Dengue is rising in other cities too
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported more suspected dengue cases than Sindh in late August, 263 against 173, in the same NIH bulletin. In Punjab, the district health authority's count for Rawalpindi reached 15 confirmed cases by late September, as reported.
Punjab's figures are not in the federal bulletin, which is why we track them separately. The dengue cases in Rawalpindi are counted by the district health authority there.
The same NIH bulletins show a much bigger problem in Sindh: malaria. Sindh reported 63,129 suspected malaria cases in week 35 alone. That is far more than dengue, and most were in Badin, Mirpurkhas and Khairpur, not Karachi. We covered malaria cases in Sindh from the week 32 bulletin.
The Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue breeds in clean standing water: water tanks, coolers, flower pots and old tyres. It bites in the daytime. Emptying and covering stored water once a week removes the places where it breeds.
Common questions
How many dengue cases are there in Karachi in 2026?
No current official Karachi total is published. The last Sindh Health Department figure we found, reported in April, was 163 cases in Karachi Division.
How many suspected dengue cases did Sindh report in late August 2026?
Sindh reported 173 suspected cases in week 35, according to the NIH IDSR bulletin. That was up from 51 in week 32.
When was the first dengue death in Karachi in 2026?
On 16 March 2026, as reported from a Sindh Health Department report. The patient was a 20-year-old woman from PIB Colony.
Is the dengue test free in Karachi government hospitals?
We could not confirm it. We found no 2026 Sindh notice on free dengue tests, so ask at the hospital counter first.
Which dengue test should I ask for?
Doctors usually order an NS1 antigen test in the first days of fever and a complete blood count to check platelets.
Which painkiller is safe for dengue fever?
Paracetamol. Avoid aspirin and ibuprofen, because they raise the risk of bleeding.
How we verified this
What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.
Last checked on 30 September 2026. We read the NIH IDSR weekly public health bulletins for weeks 32 and 35 of 2026, Tables 1 and 5, on the National Institutes of Health website. We checked the Sindh Health Department website and found no dengue counts or testing notice. The first death, the April case count and the 2025 totals are Sindh Health Department figures as reported in the press. We will update this when the department publishes newer figures.
About the author
Public Services and Education Journalist
Fajr Riaz is a journalist and content writer at Pakistan Era, based in Lahore. She covers the questions people meet in everyday life in Pakistan: how a public service works, what a change in the rules means, and where to find a reliable answer.
