KARACHI, March 18: The Adviser to the chief minister on Local Govt and Katchi Abadis, Wasim Akhter, has underscored the need to streamline dental care facilities across the country on adequate lines with major emphasis on hygiene. The adviser said this in the inaugural programme of a dental workshop, ‘Health Asia 2005’ on Friday. He referred to the major gap between the population and their accessibility to qualified dental care professionals. The workshop was being attended by delegates from various Asian countries. He observed the need for a regular training programme for all dental health care providers in order to provide timely and quality interventions to people suffering from dental diseases.
Mr Akhter said Pakistan was strongly committed to attaining the WHO goal of ‘Health for All’ in the minimum possible time, and to address the issue of health in its absolute totality with major emphasis on prevention.
He also took stock of the fact that dental diseases were on the rise mainly due to the deteriorating hygienic standards among the masses followed by rampant modernization and sedentary lifestyle under which people were resorting more to consuming junk and soft foods with contents harmful for teeth and the gums.
He called for concerted efforts to promote health education right from the school level to the general public level, so that the trend of dental problems could be contained, and eating habits of the masses modified. Referring to the fact that treatment of dental diseases was expensive, the adviser said people must be made to realize that prevention and proper care would not only protect their life quality, but also contain heavy financial burden. He also reiterated that the government both at the federal and provincial levels was keen to provide quality health care and education to the masses.
Earlier, Dr Zakiuddin, Project Director of Health Asia 2005 said the event was an opportunity for discussing health issues, which were almost similar, primarily in the South Asian context.
The fact that dentists were among the segments who required extreme care in handling dental patients in the back drop of the possibility of being inflicted with blood-borne infections, made extreme caution essential. The session was also addressed by Vice-Chancellor, Baqai Medical University Dr Azhar and Dr Baqar of the Fatima Jinnah Dental College.—APP
