HARIPUR, Nov 28: Lack of awareness about primary and reproductive health is one of the main facters behind minor problems developing into full-blown diseases like hepatitis, HIV, TB, tetanus and other complications, a workshop was told here on Monday.

The event was organized jointly by the Sungi Development Foundation and Human Development Organization (HDO).

Dr Khalil Bangash, district coordinator EPI, said that balanced diet, health of the mother and the child, and family planning were the main components envisaged by WHO’s health charter.

In order to achieve these objectives, people must get themselves acquainted with precautionary measures, he said.

He added that precautionary practices in marital relations, transfusion of blood and other steps could save people from contracting lethal diseases like HIV and Hepatitis.

He said that certain labs were involved in selling unscreened blood and criminally labelling them as HIV- and Hepatitis B-screened. These practices must be made public and the criminals punished, he said.

About family planning, he said it should be done in a planned manner, with both partners consenting on birth control and receiving necessary guidelines on how to bring up their children.

He also spoke on tropical and communicable diseases.

Ms Rafia said that trained lady health workers were busy creating awareness about the problems of primary and reproductive health in rural parts and helping in reducing the mortality rate.

She also spoke about breast cancer, its causes and ways of its prevention, water contamination and its negative impact on people’s health.

Muhammad Sadaqat of Human Development Organization said his organization was developing professional skills of district journalists because unless they were familiarized with health issues, the goal of getting rid of diseases would remain elusive.

He said the HDO would soon launch awareness program on HIV and Hepatitis B in district Haripur.

Omar Javed Khan, zonal coordinator of Sungi, said that his NGO had already embarked on an integrated plan of educating students of different government and private-sector institutions about merits of primary health and precautionary measures.

He said there were certain barriers to educating students on these issues,

“but these will be overcome with the

help of education department and the media”.

Ms Anjum stressed the need of collaborative effort by the media and civil society organizations in order to achieve the goal of a healthy society.