Is anything worse than usual in Barkhan right now?

Yes. Malaria is above usual: 1.5× its usual for these weeks. One more is above usual: pneumonia in under-fives.

Above usual · 1.5×

159 malaria cases a week, against a usual 106.

0100200300usual range2026JanAprJulOct

Read from these three weekly reports by Field Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Division, National Institutes of Health, Islamabad:

  • Week 36, 2026
  • Week 37, 2026
  • Week 39, 2026
The 6 reports behind "usual"
  • Week 36, 2024
  • Week 38, 2024
  • Week 39, 2024
  • Week 36, 2025
  • Week 37, 2025
  • Week 38, 2025

The publisher's own list of its weekly reports

⅛×usual8×

How this is worked out. The last four weeks against the same four weeks of the two years before, for this district alone. Illnesses with fewer than 5 cases a week here are left out: too few to compare.

What makes the most people ill here?

Non-cholera diarrhoea and malaria: 57 of every 100 reports here this year.

  • Non-cholera diarrhoea29 in 100
  • Malaria28 in 100
  • Flu-like illness16 in 100
  • Typhoid11 in 100
  • Pneumonia in under-fives6 in 100
  • 7 others10 in 100

7,029 reports from Barkhan so far in 2026.

Which illnesses are coming into season here?

Too few weeks of reports, or too few cases, to show a season in Barkhan yet.

How does Barkhan compare with the rest of Pakistan?

Barkhan is 7th of the 80 districts with enough malaria to compare, each against its own usual.

usual⅛×8×32×country 0.7×Abbottabad: 0.8×Badin: 0.8×Bajaur: 0.8×Bannu: 0.6×Barkhan: 1.5×Batagram: 0.3×Buner: 1.1×Chagai: 0.6×Charsadda: 0.9×Chitral Lower: 0.7×Chitral Upper: 0.6×D. I. Khan: 0.9×Dadu: 0.7×Lower Dir: 0.5×Upper Dir: 1.5×Ghotki: 1.1×Hangu: 0.8×Haripur: 0.2×Harnai: 0.7×Hyderabad: 1.3×Jacobabad: 1.2×Jaffarabad: 0.1×Jamshoro: 0.8×Jhal Magsi: 0.2×Kalat: 0.0×Kambar Shahdad Kot: 0.6×Central Karachi: 2.1×East Karachi: 1.3×Karachi Keamari: 1.4×Korangi Karachi: 1.0×Malir Karachi: 0.5×South Karachi: 0.8×West Karachi: 1.1×Karak: 1.6×Kashmore: 0.8×Kech: 0.6×Khairpur: 0.5×Kharan: 0.2×Khyber: 1.0×Killa Abdullah: 0.3×Kohat: 1.1×Kohistan Lower: 0.4×Kohistan Upper: 0.5×Kolai Palas Kohistan: 0.3×Lakki Marwat: 0.6×Larkana: 0.5×Lasbela: 0.4×Loralai: 0.9×Malakand: 1.0×Mansehra: 18×Mardan: 4.2×Mastung: 1.1×Matiari: 1.0×Mirpur Khas: 0.6×Nasirabad: 0.8×Naushahro Feroze: 0.6×North Waziristan: 1.5×Nowshera: 2.3×Nushki: 0.0×Peshawar: 0.9×Sanghar: 1.0×Shaheed Benazir Abad: 0.8×Shangla: 0.3×Shikarpur: 0.8×Sohbatpur: 0.1×South Waziristan (Lower): 1.8×South Waziristan (Upper): 0.0×Sujawal: 0.6×Sukkur: 0.7×Swabi: 1.4×Swat: 0.4×Tando Allahyar: 0.7×Tando Muhammad Khan: 0.6×Tank: 0.6×Tharparkar: 0.5×Thatta: 0.7×Tor Ghar: 0.9×Umer Kot: 1.4×Upper Kurram: 0.5×Usta Muhammad: 0.2×Barkhan

Across Pakistan as a whole, malaria is at 0.7× its usual; here it is 1.5×.

Why each district against itself. A large district always has more cases than a small one. Each dot is a district against its own usual, so size drops out.

How far is care from here?

Most people (100%) live more than an hour's walk from a hospital or clinic.

Walking time to the nearest hospital or clinic, for everyone living in Barkhan. Half of people are within 1193 minutes.

  • Within an hour's walk0%
  • One to two hours0%
  • More than two hours100%

What people say

In Balochistan, 74% of women say the distance to a health facility is a big problem when they need care (80% in rural areas), against 42% across Pakistan.

Sources: walking times, Weiss and others, Nature Medicine 2020 (Malaria Atlas Project), a model at walking pace from facilities mapped in 2019; where people live, WorldPop 2020; what people say, National Institute of Population Studies and ICF, Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18, table 9.17.

How well are children and mothers looked after in Barkhan?

Better than Pakistan as a whole on 0 of 5, worse on 3.

From the government's household survey of 2019-20, the newest that goes down to each district. It is not this week's news: it shows the care people in Barkhan could reach.

  • Are children fully vaccinated?

    50% of children aged 1 to 2, by their vaccination card. Worse than Pakistan as a whole.

    In 2014-15: 43% here, 60% across Pakistan.

  • Is a doctor, nurse or midwife at the birth?

    68% of recent births. About the same as Pakistan as a whole.

  • Do mothers get a check-up after birth?

    29% of mothers. Worse than Pakistan as a whole.

  • Do children with diarrhoea get ORS?

    86% of children under 5 who had diarrhoea. About the same as Pakistan as a whole.

    In 2014-15: 100% here, 72% across Pakistan.

  • Do homes have a toilet?

    43% of homes have none. Worse than Pakistan as a whole.

Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey, District Level, 2019-20, tables 4.3 B, 4.7 B, 4.11, 4.12, 7.2. The birth figure adds together doctors, nurses, midwives and lady health visitors, the report's own definition of skilled help at a birth (page 197 of the PDF).

Can we trust this week's numbers for Barkhan?

Yes, for this week. Barkhan sent figures in 36 of the last 52 weekly reports.

Weekly reports with figures from Barkhan, most recent last

A reported case means someone reached a clinic and a form was filed, so these count reports, not everyone who was ill.

Sources. Field Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Division, National Institutes of Health, Islamabad, weekly report. District maps: World Food Programme Spatial Data Infrastructure, published as a Common Operational Dataset by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.