PMA for emulating Sri Lanka’s malaria eradication success

Karachi

Congratulating the people and government of Sri Lanka on completely eradicating malaria from the country, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has urged Pakistan and its authorities concerned to work towards emulating the success achieved by the island country.

PMA Secretary General Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared Sri Lanka as a malaria-free country.Despite having meagre resources, he said, the Sri Lankan government had proved that a country could achieve a goal with political will, planning and proper efforts.

“The achievement was made possible because of mass campaign against malaria, public education and awareness. It is shameful for a country like ours where, despite abundant resources, we have not been able to eliminate diseases such as polio, hepatitis B and C, malaria, leprosy, diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and measles."

Pakistan's immunisation programme has been a failure in all provinces and unfortunately, he added, the government did not seem committed to the cause of disease control.

 “We need a big army of heath workers to fight against the infectious disease in cities and the far-flung rural areas. It seems that our health planners have no interest in eradication of diseases,” Dr Mirza said.

"The governments in all the four provinces, Kashmir and Gilgit Biltistan should make serious efforts for the eradication of infectious diseases.”

He said it was the need of the hour to evaluate and audit the present heath structure and analyse the failure of the health care.

“Without an honest audit, it will not be possible to eradicate the diseases which are claiming too many lives in Pakistan."

He said Pakistan was among those few countries where children were also victim of diseases related to severe malnutrition and therefore they were vulnerable to diseases.

Dr Miza also said the PMA and all the doctors of country were ready to help the government in the war against malaria and other communicable diseases.

He said it was the right time to follow and learn from the example of a third world country like Sri Lanka to bring a change in the society.