close
Friday March 29, 2024

‘Heart, neonatal diseases on the rise in Pakistan’

By our correspondents
September 20, 2017

Islamabad :Life expectancy is growing in Pakistan but the country continues to struggle with diarrheal diseases and lower respiratory infection, ailments that kill infants, and a growing burden from heart disease, says a new scientific study.

According to it, globally, countries have saved more lives over the past decade, especially among children under age 5, but persistent health problems, such as obesity, conflict, and mental illness, comprise a triad of troubles, and prevent people from living long, healthy lives.

“Pakistan continues to make strides increasing life expectancy, but all of our South Asian neighbours are living longer, healthier lives. Communicable and neonatal diseases are still taking the lives of far too many young Pakistanis, and we are now also contending with rising rates of non-communicable ailments like heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and different forms of cancer. We have much more work to do,” said Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Professor and founding director, Center of Excellence in Women & Child Health at the Aga Khan University and a study co-author from Pakistan.

This year’s version of the annual Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) is composed of five peer-reviewed papers, and was published today in the international medical journal, The Lancet.

The five papers provide in-depth analyses of life expectancy and mortality, causes of death, overall disease burden, years lived with disability, and risk factors that lead to health loss. According to the study’s main findings for Pakistan, a Pakistani male born in 2016 can expect to live 66.4 years, an increase in life expectancy of 3 years over the past decade. A female has a life expectancy of 68.9 years, up 4.2 years from 2006.

However, illnesses and injuries take away years of healthy life in Pakistan. A male born in 2016 will live approximately 58.2 years in good health; a female only 59.1 years. Pakistan lags behind other South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, and Nepal in healthy life expectancy.

The top five causes of premature death in Pakistan are ischemic heart disease, neonatal encephalopathy, diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory infection, and neonatal preterm birth. The ailments that cause illness can be very different. Iron-deficiency anemia, migraines, and back pain are the top causes of years that people live with disability in Pakistan.

Deaths of children under 5, particularly stillbirths and neo-natal deaths, are a persistent health challenge. Pakistan has 25.9 still births per 1,000 live births, far more than the South Asian average of 17.4 and the global average of 13.1 Pakistani neo-natal deaths per 1,000 live births stand at 31.8, compared with the regional and global average of 23.2 and 16.7 respectively.

Moreover, in 2016, for the first time in modern history, fewer than 5 million children under age 5 died in one year, as compared to 1990 when 11 million died.

The researchers attribute this global health landmark to improvements in increased educational levels of mothers, rising per capita incomes, declining levels of fertility, increased vaccination programs, mass distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets,improved water and sanitation, and a wide array of other health programs funded by development funding for health.

“Death is a powerful motivator, both for individuals and for countries, to address diseases that have been killing us at high rates,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

“But, we’re been much less motivated to address issues leading to illnesses. A ‘triad of troubles’ – obesity, conflict, and mental illness, including substance use disorders – poses a stubborn and persistent barrier to active and vigorous lifestyles.”

Despite progress on reducing deaths, this "triad of troubles" – obesity, conflict, and mental illness, including substance use disorders – is preventing further progress.

One of the most alarming risks in the GBD is excess body weight. The rate of illness related to people being too heavy is rising quickly, and the disease burden can be found in all sociodemographic levels. High body mass index (BMI) is the fourth largest contributor to the loss of healthy life, after high blood pressure, smoking, and high blood sugar.

Deaths over the past decade due to conflict and terrorism more than doubled. Recent conflicts, such as those in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, and Libya, are major public health threats, both in regard to casualties and because they lead to long-term physical and mental consequences.

Mental illness and substance use disorders continued to contribute substantially to the loss of healthy life in 2016, affecting all countries regardless of their socioeconomic status. Treatment rates for mental and substance use disorders remain low. Even in high-income countries where treatment coverage has increased, the prevalence of the most common disorders has not changed.

The study’s other findings show that poor diet is associated with 1 in 5 deaths globally; non-communicable diseases were responsible for 72% of all deaths worldwide in 2016, in contrast to 58% in 1990. Within the past decade, diabetes rose in rank order from 17th to 9th as a leading cause of death in low-middle income countries. Tobacco is linked to 7.1 million deaths in more than 100 countries, smoking was among the leading risk factors for loss of healthy life.