ISLAMABAD: The World Malaria Day, which is observed on April 25 every year, passed unnoticed in the federal capital on Saturday.

Though the elimination of the disease is included in the top six priorities of the government, Pakistan is the second country in the world from where most of the malaria cases are reported every year.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said around 1.6 million cases of malaria were reported in Pakistan every year. However, he added, 60 per cent of them were not confirmed through laboratory tests. More political commitment and funding are required to eliminate the disease, he added.

“It is unfortunate that no one is ready to take the responsibility of the health sector. The federal government claims that after the 18th amendment it has become the responsibility of the provinces to deal with the health sector. On the other hand, provinces do not have the capacity to tackle the health-related issues,” he said.

Because of the security situation and floods, a large number of people were displaced in the country during the last about a decade. So the number of malaria-affected people could not be reduced, he said.

“We need political will to control the disease. Besides, the donor agencies should also help the government to resolve the funding issue,” he said.

According to a statement of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on its website, the theme this year was ‘Invest in the future: defeat malaria’. This reflects the ambitious goals and targets set out in a draft post-2015 strategy to be presented to the World Health Assembly in May.

“The new strategy aims to reduce malaria cases and deaths by 90 per cent by 2030 from current levels. Four countries have been certified free of malaria in the last decade and the post-2015 strategy sets the goal of eliminating the disease from a further 35 countries by 2030.”

It added that according to estimates released in December 2014, there were about 198 million cases of malaria in 2013 and an estimated 584,000 deaths. Malaria mortality rates have fallen by 47 per cent globally since 2000. Health expert Dr Waseem Khawaja told Dawn that malaria was a very common disease.

“Mosquito bites after sunset and before sunrise, so people should take precautionary measures during that time. People should sleep in rooms and ensure that mosquitoes would not enter the rooms,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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