At least 71 children have died of measles across Pakistan during the first four months of 2026, official figures show, as a resurgent outbreak exposes widening gaps in the country’s childhood immunisation coverage.
Sindh has borne the heaviest burden, accounting for 40 of the 71 deaths recorded nationwide. Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa each reported 12 fatalities, while Balochistan registered four.
A total of 4,541 confirmed measles cases were documented across the country between January and April. The highest caseload was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 1,712 cases, followed by Punjab with 1,198 and Sindh with 1,183. Balochistan recorded 197 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 151, Islamabad 55 and Gilgit-Baltistan 45.
Health officials have linked the surge to a large cohort of unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children. Dr Raj Kumar, director of Sindh’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), said the province was working to reach children left behind during the pandemic. “There was a large cohort of unvaccinated children formed during Covid-19 that the government was trying to cover,” he said, noting that while overall coverage had improved, certain districts continued to witness repeated outbreaks.
The scale of the so-called “zero-dose” problem remains daunting. Over one million children in Pakistan remain unvaccinated, according to medical associations cited in the official assessment, while an estimated 58 per cent of children are considered unimmunised or under-immunised. Authorities report covering between 40,000 and 50,000 zero-dose children during each anti-polio drive, a figure that underscores how far routine immunisation still has to reach.
Vaccine hesitancy continues to compound the problem. Dr Khalid Shafi of the Pakistan Paediatric Association stressed that cost was not the barrier. “All vaccines in the routine immunisation programme are available free of cost,” he said, adding that “still parents are reluctant” and that hesitancy was putting children at serious risk.
Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro of the Pakistan Medical Association warned that national immunisation coverage lags far behind regional peers, leaving large populations of children exposed to a highly contagious but preventable disease.
Measles spreads readily through respiratory droplets when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, and can cause severe complications including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, particularly among malnourished and unvaccinated children. The figures emerged around World Immunisation Week, observed in late April, which health authorities used to renew calls for parents to complete the two-dose measles-rubella schedule available at government centres.
With the toll concentrated among the youngest and least protected, public-health experts say closing the zero-dose gap, sustaining routine immunisation alongside polio campaigns, and countering hesitancy in high-risk districts will be decisive in preventing further deaths through the remainder of 2026.
