PAKISTAN’S health sector is no longer merely under strain, it is in complete disarray. The Pakistan Medical Association’s Health of the Nation 2026 report reveals a crisis that has long festered, is preventable and most worryingly, normalised. The numbers should jolt policymakers: 675 newborns and 27 mothers die every single day from avoidable causes. Such losses cannot be viewed as acts of fate. They are failures of governance.
Contaminated water remains the silent killer. Nearly 40pc of annual deaths are linked to poor-quality water, which is also responsible for 30pc of reported diseases nationwide. Diarrhoea continues to claim the lives of infants and young children, while every fifth Pakistani suffers from a water-related illness.
The burden is crushing an already fragile healthcare system. Meanwhile, Pakistan carries the heaviest global burden of hepatitis C, among the highest rates of heart disease in South Asia and the highest incidence of breast cancer in Asia, reflecting serious neglect in both prevention and primary care.
The rise of extensively drug-resistant typhoid in Karachi and other parts of Sindh shows how multiple failures converge. Unsafe water, unregulated antibiotic use and weak public health oversight have combined to produce infections that are harder and costlier to treat. Similarly alarming is the rapid growth of HIV.
New infections have surged by 200pc in 15 years, making it the fastest-growing epidemic in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. An estimated 350,000 people live with HIV, most of whom are unaware they are infected. Such outbreaks linked to unsafe medical practices expose the fragility of regulatory systems meant to protect patients.
Compounding this crisis is the unchecked rise in medicine prices and the shortage of 80 essential life-saving drugs, including insulin. When families must choose between food and treatment, the state has abdicated its core responsibility. Add to this toxic air that blankets much of the country, and it becomes clear that environmental degradation is now a direct public health emergency.
The PMA’s call for declaring a national health emergency deserves urgent consideration. Raising health spending to at least 3pc of GDP, freezing life-saving drug prices, cracking down on black markets, and prioritising clean drinking water are not radical demands. These are minimum obligations the state must meet. Without immediate intervention, the crisis will deepen, and the cost will continue to be paid in lives.
Editorial Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2026.
