• Deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases reported at four tertiary care city hospitals
• Expert says most parents fail to ensure children receive recommended doses on time
• EPI official claims cases declined this year
KARACHI: At least 144 children have lost to measles and diphtheria — both vaccine-preventable infections — at four key tertiary care hospitals in the first seven months of this year, it emerged on Monday.
Sources said that a total of 1,915 cases of measles with 125 mortalities have been reported at the four hospitals —Indus Hospital (IH), Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre (SIDH&RC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN) — this year so far.
Eighty-one cases of diphtheria were reported at SIDH&RC, eight at Indus Hospital (8) with 19 deaths.
Detailed analysis of the data showed that at least 17 children have lost their lives to measles — a highly contagious viral infection — at IH with around 850 cases this year so far. In addition, a child died of diphtheria at the hospital, which has recorded at least eight of cases of the bacterial infection.
At SID&RC, at least 54 children — 36 from measles and 18 from diphtheria — have died during the period between Jan 1 and July 26, 2026.
The total number of measles and diphtheria cases reported at the facility was 575 and 81, respectively.
While detailed data of the NICH was not available, sources at the province’s largest public-sector hospital for children shared that at least seven children have died of measles at the facility in recent weeks.
“We get complicated cases after the patient has already been mismanaged at multiple health facilities. At that stage, measles has either turned into encephalitis [a dangerous swelling and inflammation of the brain] or pneumonia [the most common measles’ complication]. The former carries a significant risk of death and long-term disability,” a doctor at the NICH told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.
Information gathered from SICHN showed that 484 cases of measles have been reported this year so far at the facility with 65 deaths.
Role of healthcare providers
Explaining why a significant number of children couldn’t get protection against diseases that could easily be prevented through vaccines available free of cost under the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI), Dr Khalid Shafi of the Pakistan Paediatric Association said that the tragedy in Pakistan was that the coverage rate of vaccine doses given at birth was 90 per cent but this number declined sharply as the child grows, requiring subsequent doses of vaccines.
“Unfortunately, parents get negligent and the child either gets no or partial protection against several diseases including measles, typhoid and polio,” he said, adding that around 20 to 25 percent of the child population in the country couldn’t get timely vaccination.
He pointed out that the first shot of measles under the EPI programme was given at nine months and the second (the last) one at 15 months. “If 95 per cent of our children get the two shots at the right time, we can easily control this disease as the vaccine provides herd immunity to the rest of the population. Most children in our country, however, either fail to receive any dose or get only partial protection through one dose.” To address this challenge, he said countrywide vaccination drives were launched every four years.
Last year, a national level drive was launched for children aged six months to five years, who were given an additional dose of MR (measles and rubella) vaccine.
“Along with the government efforts, our healthcare providers have a crucial role to help tackle the vaccination coverage gap. When an ailing child reports to them, they must ask about his or her vaccination history/status and provide proper counselling to parents, if they find any vaccine doses missing.
“Having said that, parents have the prime responsibility to protect their child and they must play their part with diligence.
Though there are cases with children falling sick despite getting the vaccine shots, their numbers are few and the disease intensity in such cases is mild.”
EPI’s response
In his response, EPI Project Director Dr Raj Kumar said cases of measles and diphtheria had declined this year in the province, especially measles which saw a 35pc drop.
According to him, 148 cases of diphtheria with 14 deaths were reported in the province in the first seven months of 2025, while this year so far 10 deaths have been reported with 46 confirmed cases.
“Last year, we had 4,626 cases of measles in the first seven months with 57 deaths in the province. This year so far, we have 3,025 cases with 59 deaths,” he said.
Highlighting challenges, he said that pockets of unvaccinated children and parental negligence were primary drivers of increase in cases.
“Along with that, there are myths surrounding measles and parents prefer traditional remedies, keep their child at home, resulting in disease complications,” he explained, adding that the government had run vaccination campaigns to cover missed children and planning to continue this process and that an additional 970 vaccinators had been recruited to address HR shortages. The government had surveillance units and collected data from hospitals, he said.
Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026
