Pakistan’s Health Sector Dilemmas

Ishtiaq Ahmed

London: The physical and mental health of people is of central importance for the progress, development, and prosperity of Pakistan. Unhealthy people are generally unable to contribute fully to nation-building. It is for this crucial reason that the health of the nation should be the topmost priority and high on the agenda for the government.

Many debilitating and killer diseases continue to be rife in Pakistan, for example, hepatitis B and C, cancer, tuberculosis, and obesity. Pakistan also has one of the highest infant mortality rates globally. A few facts and figures to illustrate the scale of these concerns:

Hepatitis: Viral hepatitis is the eighth-highest killer disease globally. According to the data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are 257 million people who are chronically infected with hepatitis B and 71 million with hepatitis C.

In Pakistan, almost 12 million people are suffering from B or C. Lack of awareness, poor health facilities, poor sanitation, and contaminated water supplies result in adding another 15,000 new cases annually. The disease is further aggravated by the poor standards of medical care in many hospitals and clinics. For example, the transmission of hepatitis B and C via therapeutic injections, syringe reuse, surgery, improper sterilisation of invasive medical devices, and blood transfusion are some of the risk factors.

Tuberculosis (TB): whilst in most developed countries TB is no longer regarded as the killer disease with appropriate medical care in place, Pakistan continues to report over 500,000 TB cases annually. TB remains one of the most debilitating diseases, with the country being ranked 5th in the global scheme of things

Cancer: The chronic disease also remains one of the top killer diseases in Pakistan, despite major advances in treatment. Breast, lung, liver, colorectal, prostate, head, and neck cancers are most commonly diagnosed in Pakistan. Lack of awareness, poor access to medical care, and prohibitive costs of treatment are some of the key concerns.

Child infant mortality: Pakistan, with a child mortality rate of 58.46 per 1000 live births, compares badly with India (28.7), Bangladesh (23.6), Indonesia (17.1), Turkey (8.1), and some of the other developing countries.

The comparison with some of the developed countries gives us an indication of how far we are lagging behind in this critical area of health. For example, Switzerland, with an infant mortality rate of 2.3, and the USA, with 5.6 per 1000 live births, point to the long road the country needs to travel. Other major European nations have very similar numbers.

In terms of pegging, Pakistan is abysmally placed, even in comparison to Bangladesh, which became independent from Pakistan in 1972. This is an avoidable catastrophic loss of human life that requires urgent attention and action at the highest level.

Obesity: Obesity is another epidemic that is becoming very common in Pakistan. It is estimated that about 40 percent of the population in Pakistan is obese. This percentage is on the increase, with dire consequences for the health of the nation and more pressure on almost disjointed and often dysfunctional health care. Lack of awareness, poor eating habits, an imbalanced diet, and a lack of physical exercise are some of the key contributory factors. The nation is on the slippery slope of an impending health disaster.

There is no room for complacency in matters of health. In this age of enormous medical strides, for the health of the nation to be allowed to decline is nothing short of gross negligence of a criminal proportion.