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| May 7, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1424 |
Rs26.3bn earmarked for health promotion
ISLAMABAD, May 6: An amount of Rs26.3 billion has been earmarked for different health preventive programmes in the next five to nine years by realising the fact that the public health sector in Pakistan caters only to 20 per cent of the total 145 million population.
Out of this amount, Rs5.3 billion would be spent on national EPI (extended programme of immunisation) in the next 5 years, $30 million on polio eradication, $28 million (5 years) on Hepatitis- B vaccine in EPI with GAVI grant, $44 million (5 years) on strengthening routing EPI with GAVI grant, Rs857 million (2 years) on eliminating MNT (maternal and neonatal tetanus) in high risk districts, Rs9.1 billion (9 years) on the lady health workers programme, Rs788 million (6 years) on women health project, Rs2.8 billion (5 years) on enhanced HIV/AIDS control programme (2003-08), Rs188 million (5 years) on national TB (tuberculosis) control programme, Rs273 million (5 years) on national malaria control programme (RBM initiative) and Rs302 million (5 years) on national nutrition programme.
These statistics were shared by Director General (DG) Health Mohammad Aslam with DG Nominee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr J. W. Lee in a presentation at National Institute of Health (NIH) here on Tuesday.
Executive director NIH Dr Athar Saeed Dil and other senior officials of WHO and NIH were present on the occasion.
Mr Lee admitted that the world health workers had failed to come up to the expectations of the people to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that was inflicting economic, political and social losses on the nations. However, the WHO has launched an effective surveillance system to check and control the deadly virus in collaboration with the SARS-affected states and other related international organizations, Mr Less informed.
He said health had become a major economic, political and social issue throughout the world admitting that in the modern world, airports could not be sealed off nor entry points banned for neighbouring countries. Mr lee told the participants that he chose to visit Pakistan for making significant progress in the health sector.
DG Health Mohammad Aslam said Pakistan was in a dynamic state of epidemiological transition. “The influx of chronic diseases has added another layer of problem, while the burden of communicable diseases has not yet been eradicated. This double burden is a major challenge for the health system in our country,” he said. About demographic transition, the DG said the population growth rate in Pakistan was still at 2.1 per cent, total fertility rate at 4.8 per cent and contraceptive prevalence rate at 28 per cent when the situation in countries like Bangladesh, Iran and Srilanka was far less.
He deplored that one child died every minute mainly from EPI diseases. About 400,000 infants die in first year of life every year, 30,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes and 80 per cent of births take place at home, either unsupervised or by inadequately trained personnel. He said Pakistan had the sixth largest burden of TB in the world with 177 incidence every 100,000. Similarly, he said, there were 500,000 new malaria cases every year, 25 million smokers consuming 36 billion cigarettes, 10 per cent of age group 25 and above were affected with diabetes.
He said the overall national vision for the health sector was based on ‘Health-For-All’ approach. The new health policy, he said, aimed at implementing strategy of protecting people against hazardous diseases; of promoting public health; and of upgrading curative facilities,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Lee called on federal minister for health Muhammad Nasir Khan and discussed with him health related issues with particular reference to Pakistan.
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