KARACHI: Doctors stress public awareness: Preventive medicine moot
KARACHI, Sept 10: Former city nazim Niamatullah Khan has reiterated the urgency to address the sewerage and sanitation system in the metropolis to help the masses avoid preventable diseases, more prominently Hepatitis A and E besides other common ailments taking toll on public health.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the annual conference of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) on Saturday, he hoped the event with the theme “Preventive Medicine” would attempt to involve healthcare providers, particularly doctors to create public awareness regarding the importance of prevention.
“In a society like ours where ignorance is rampant and literacy is low, the masses, facing resource constraints, need to be engaged in programmes where little care and focus on prevention can help improve their health status,” he said.
Mincing no words that concerned departments also need to take care of sanitation and hygiene, the former nazim said there was also an urgency to educate people regarding consequences of a sedentary lifestyle and the importance of simple living, more properly healthy and simple diet, and appropriate physical exertion.
“Majority of us being believers of Islam cannot ignore the stress laid on cleanliness and personal hygiene,” he said, reminding that these were directly linked to health and the general well being of an individual.
Dr Misbahul Aziz, President, PIMA – Karachi, said the conference, a regular annual feature of the association, was focussing this year on the preventive aspect of medicine.
This, he said, was in the backdrop of the fact that a significant number of diseases registered among locals appeared to be those, which were largely avoidable through little care and caution.
“Hepatitis B and C, assuming an epidemic proportion in our country, is due to the reuse of syringes, and due care on the part of doctors as well as the public could help contain the diseases,” he said.
He also referred to the surge in the incidence of TB and other chest diseases, again consequent to disregard for hygiene and avoidable circumstances as quitting smoking.
Cardiac ailments and cancers besides various contagious/non-contagious diseases were also commonly reported despite the fact that their treatment was beyond means for most of the people, he said.
Dr Farrukh Abdali, Coordinator, Ethics Committee of the conference referred to growing gap between patients and doctors.
“Constant deterioration in values registered in our society during the last 20 year-period has brought us to a position where a relationship based on mutual respect, between patient and doctor, has gravely turned into distrust.”
Consequently, we see that patients overtly suspicious of healthcare providers often ignore even the genuine advice of doctors to seek required medical examination or start medication, which may be expensive but actually required by the patients, he commented.
“Our motive is to bridge the gap and restore public confidence for which we have also started a campaign on regular basis,” Dr Abdali said.
Prof Abdul Ghaffar Billio, a seasoned paediatrician, discussed the role of the EPI in preventing vaccine preventable diseases among local children.
He stressed that the EPI programme, initiated in the country some 25 years back and making a marked difference till the 1990s, should be efficiently managed in the larger interest of children.
He also referred to the issue of vaccine combinations, which had emerged as a reality in the developed world but was expensive and beyond reach for Pakistan.
Renowned chest specialist Dr Javaid A Khan, highlighting the importance of prevention, discussed the issue of smoking and tobacco consumption.
As for tobacco smoking, he said 40 per cent male and eight per cent of the female population was indulged in the habit, the senior doctor said, reminding that tobacco consumption and its promotion through media had emerged as a major threat.
