PMA calls ‘Healthcare Apocalypse’ as outbreaks grip Sindh

Medical body slams ‘criminal paralysis’ of govt, cites 65 measles deaths and surge in HIV among children

IV Report

KARACHI: Calling Sindh “a breeding ground for preventable deaths,” the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Thursday (April 23) declared the province’s health system in collapse, warning of unchecked outbreaks of measles, HIV, Congo virus, and monkeypox amid what it termed the administration’s “criminal paralysis.”

In a press release, the PMA said Sindh was “battling a multi-front epidemic” while public hospitals function understaffed, undersupplied, and unsafe for doctors and patients alike.

The association said Sindh emerged as the worst-affected province in 2025 for measles, recording over 11,000 suspected cases, 4,200 confirmed infections, and 65 deaths, with the impact falling primarily on children under five and mortality worsened by malnutrition. Karachi, Khairpur, Sukkur and Jacobabad were identified as hotspots.

The situation, it added, has reached a critical point with the recent death of a patient from Tando Muhammad Khan due to Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, signaling the virus’ spread into the interior and exposing gaps in livestock regulation and isolation facilities.

According to the PMA, an alarming 894 new HIV cases were recorded in the first quarter of 2026 alone, including at least 329 children — a tragedy it attributed to medical negligence and unsafe injection practices. As of mid-April 2026, the province had also recorded 25 laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases and nine deaths, with local transmission confirmed in Karachi and Khairpur.

The PMA noted that recent studies indicate between 2 and 4.5 million Sindh residents have active Hepatitis C, significantly higher than previous estimates, while nationally about 9.8 million people are viremic for Hepatitis C and another 2 million live with chronic Hepatitis B.

Over 42,000 dog-bite cases were reported recently, the PMA said, but a severe shortage of Anti-Rabies Vaccine and Rabies Immunoglobulin is leading to agonising, preventable deaths. Malaria remains rampant across the province, it added, fueled by poor sanitation and stagnant water.

The association further stated that Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centres have “virtually collapsed,” leaving the rural population dependent on quacks, while public hospitals face documented shortages of essential life-saving drugs and a proliferation of substandard and counterfeit medicines.

The PMA demanded an immediate judicial inquiry into incidents at Mithi Hospital and the suicides of medical students in Mirpurkhas, saying repeated requests to the Chief Minister of Sindh have gone unanswered and the victims’ families remain without justice.

It also called for mass screening for HIV, aggressive vaccination drives for measles and rabies, specialized containment for Congo virus in districts like Sanghar and Matiari, and a crackdown on substandard drugs with urgent restocking of essential medicines.

“The PMA can no longer remain a silent spectator to this healthcare apocalypse,” said Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, Secretary General, PMA (Centre). “The government’s indifference is a death sentence for the people of Sindh. We demand accountability now, or we will be forced to mobilize the entire medical community in protest.”

‘Doctors not safe even in Red Zone’

Turning to security, the PMA said the “brutal murder of Dr Sarang within the supposedly secure Red Zone of Karachi” had sent shockwaves through the medical fraternity. “If doctors are not safe in the city’s heart, they are safe nowhere,” the statement read, demanding concrete security measures in metropolitan cities and provincial hospitals to prevent further murders and suicides.

Sindh Health Department

In the meantime, the Sindh Health Department has clarified concerns raised over HIV figures in the past 10 days, terming media reports “contrary to facts” and an attempt to spread public panic. The department said data citing 894 new cases and 329 children in Q1 2026 was taken from “unauthorised and unverified sources,” including private doctors, in violation of the ‘HIV Treatment and Protection Act 2013’.

The department did not release its own figures for the first quarter of 2026.

“The only authentic record of confirmed cases is maintained solely by CDC-I Sindh,” it said in a statement Thursday. The department maintained that the rise in reported cases reflects accelerated screening and improved reporting, not a failure. So far, 486,008 people have been screened province-wide, including 97,935 in 2026, while over 5,182 awareness sessions have reached more than 500,000 people. Over 2,000 people living with HIV were re-linked to care in the past year, it added. 

File photos and chart sources: ST, Official sites