November 12, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 11: Speakers at an international symposium on Tuesday called for developing interventions to cope with the emerging problems of public health and infectious diseases, the major causes of human morbidity and mortality.

They also noted that unchecked damage to the physical and social environment, poor human rights practices, lack of commitment among the social and political leaders and low mass literacy were among the factors adding to the enormous burden of diseases afflicting the population, particularly those living in mega-cities.

The three-day symposium, titled ‘Tropical medicine and hygiene’, was organised by the Aga Khan University (AKU) as part of the centenary celebration of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the 25th anniversary of the university. The symposium got under way with a special session on health challenges of Karachi.

An expert on urban issues, Arif Hasan said that the economy and physical environment had deteriorated significantly over the last decade or so in the city due to critical law and order situation, crime and political violence and internal conflicts of various authorities and development agencies.

“Planners with weak public institutions overall failed to keep pace with the increasing population of Karachi,” he said, adding that declining government interventions in the education, health and technology sectors also frustrated the will to go for new trends, in addition to undermining the principles of equitable urban planning and sustainable development, which resulted in massive socio-economic and environmental problems.

He said that an unregulated informal sector and profit-hungry private sector replaced the public sector for the provisions of utilities, housing, health, education and employment. “These all led to inequity, absence of justice, degraded environmental conditions and recreational facilities in poor settlements, absence of education for skills needed for employment, and started finally taking their toll on the prevailing integration and peace of the city’s population and resulted in increasing physical and mental health issues,” he remarked.

Dr Haroon Ahmed, president of the Pakistan Association of Mental Health, discussed different states of mental health and said that various factors were causing stress, distress, disorders and other mental health problems among all segments of society in Karachi.

While mentioning the factors, he said that the lead level in the atmosphere around different traffic hot-spots of Karachi, including around the Mazar-i-Quaid, had also been contributing to mental disorders and retardation.

He said that human rights issues were also a big concern as those, too, were a reason behind the stressful lifestyle in Karachi, ultimately adding to physical health problems. “We should adhere to the principles of patriotism, collective interests and identity, otherwise the sense of insecurity and mental stress will continue resisting the meaningful and healthy changes in society,” he remarked further.

Dr Junaid Razzaq of AKU in his presentation on injuries in Karachi said that road-related fatalities and injuries were on the higher side in the city. He stressed the need for the development of more trauma centres, improved roads and footpaths, adherence to pedestrians’ rights and strict implementation of rules and efforts by the police to ensure security to the lives of citizens instead of just looking for a room for punitive measures.

HIV epidemic

Dr Arshad Altaf of the HIV/Aids Surveillance Project said that Karachi was at the centre of the HIV epidemic in the country. Sharing some details of a recently-concluded survey in Sindh, he said that Sindh reported, till September 2008, as many as 2,354 cases, including 2,186 HIV-affected people.

Talking about HIV prevalence in different categories of high-risk groups in Karachi, he said that the injection drug users’ (IDU) group was predominant, with a percentage of 23.1, followed by male sex workers (3.1) and Hijra sex workers (3.6 per cent). About 15 per cent of the male IDUs had migrated to Karachi from other parts of the province. He called for developing more harm reduction programmes in the case of Karachi.

In another session, Dr Hazel M. Dockrell of the UK talked about the development of new drugs and vaccines to fight tuberculosis. She said there is a need for more research to find vaccines against multi-drug resistant TB.

Dr Rumina Hasan, professor and chair, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, AKU, said that five per cent of TB strains in Karachi were resistant to drugs commonly used for treatment. She underscored the need for strengthening the human capacity and equipment of diagnostic facilities in the country.

The symposium also features a number of international speakers giving presentations on issues related to tropical hygiene, such as malaria, dengue, HIV, hepatitis, antimicrobial resistance, pneumonia, meningitis, hospital infection and control and the role of women in medicine.