Despite 120m population: Malaria cases in Punjab ‘all-time low,’ says WHO

ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organisation’s representative to Pakistan, Dr Palitha Mahipala, on Tuesday said despite the population of 120 million, malaria cases in Punjab were an ‘all-time low’ at the moment and with a strong push, the province could be declared malaria-free very soon.

“I have discussed with the Malaria Control Programme people and told them that we should go for regional elimination of malaria. Cases of malaria are all-time low in Punjab despite having a population of 120 million. With a strong push and change of mindset, we can declare very quickly malaria elimination in Punjab,” Dr Palitha Mahipala told a national health policy dialogue at the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad.

The dialogue, titled ‘Improving Healthcare in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities’ was organised by the Health Services Academy (HSA), Islamabad, in collaboration with COMSTECH and the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and it was addressed by leading healthcare experts and leaders on different aspects of health situation in Pakistan.

Former Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Vice Chancellor HSA Prof Shahzad Ali Khan, former ambassador Dr Raza Muhammad, former surgeon general of Pakistan Army Asif Mumtaz Sukhera, CEO of the Sehat Sahulat Programme Muhammad Arshad, CEO Islamabad Health Regulatory Authority Dr Quaid Saeed, Dr Abdur Rasheed from COMSTECH and Dr Mubashir Hanif, Director ORIC, at the HSA were among the prominent speakers at the dialogue.

The WHO’s mission chief in Pakistan maintained that despite producing the 7th highest number of scientists in the world and tackling Covid-19 extraordinarily, Pakistan was facing the double burden of communicable as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), adding Pakistan had a bright future as most of its 230 million population comprised young people.

“It means that Pakistan has a large young workforce which can work hard and bring economic development and prosperity in the country. It is now the responsibility of the authorities to keep this large young population to stay healthy to contribute to economic development instead of becoming sick and a burden on the national economy,” he added.

Urging authorities to invest on preventive healthcare, Dr Mahipala said unfortunately, consumption of trans fats is highest in Pakistan which increases risk of developing heart disease and stroke and added that in a country with 55 million people living with hypertension and 33 million with diabetes, Pakistani authorities should spend extensively on prevention and primary healthcare.

HSA Vice Chancellor Prof Shahzad Khan said around 47 people were dying due to heart attacks every hour in Pakistan, which is facing a double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases. On the one hand, people were dying due to Tuberculosis, Diarrhoea, Hepatitis C, Pneumonia and on the other hand, it is facing an epidemic of NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and mental ailments.

“Unlike other countries of the world, people as young as 25 to 30 years of age are becoming diabetic and getting disabled or dying due to its complications at a young age,” Prof Khan said and urged the policymakers to spend more on social development, which includes promoting preventive health in the country.

Former SAPM Dr Zafar Mirza spoke on various aspects of Universal Health Coverage in the country and suggested that the national health policy dialogue should be converted into policies, which should be implemented to improve the overall healthcare system delivery in the country.

Lamenting that Pakistan is among the ‘lowest spenders on the healthcare’ in the world, Dr Zafar Mirza maintained that the country needs to increase its spending on health, especially on the primary healthcare, prevention and promotive health services.

CEO of Sehat Sahulat Programme Muhamamd Arshad termed the health insurance programme that is benefitting over 175 million in Pakistan as a revolution and said of the 1,000 billion rupees spent by the federal and provincial governments, only Rs 230 billion are required to provide health insurance to each and every Pakistani while remaining amount can be spent on primary healthcare, promotive and preventive aspects of the health in Pakistan.

Dr Quaid Saeed, CEO of the Islamabad Health Regulatory Authority (IHRA), deplored that people were dying inside the hospitals due to medication errors at private hospitals for not following the regulations and failing to implement SOPs while quacks were taking lives of people on the outskirts of the capital by giving them veterinary medicines.

Former surgeon general of Pakistan Army Lt General (retd) Asif Mumtaz Sukhera said mafias in the healthcare supply chain were looting people, especially in the areas of diagnostics, medical interventions and medicines but deplored that governments were more concerned on shortages of sugar and other commodities but on the availability of essential medicines, medical devices and other equipment.