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Healthcare targets remain elusive
THE year 2004 was supposed to be a watershed in the history of healthcare in Pakistan, as polio was supposed to be banished from the country by the end of this year , and in the next two years we were only supposed to keep the debilitating disease at bay.
This was not to be. In fact, more than a month prior to the end of the year, it was apparent that polio was not going to be eradicated from the country anytime soon. And by the end of the year, the health authorities were face-to-face with a seemingly intractable problem as a consequence of which the disease looks like hunting down Pakistani children in 2005 as well.
The problem, to be sure, is not altogether unexpected. But how to rid the country of the problem, and with it the disease, is now a million-dollar question. Not resolving the same would only mean that many children would fall prey to polio despite being vaccinated against it a number of times.
An analysis has shown that more than 85 per cent of the children in Sindh, who had been diagnosed as having polio this year, were actually administered anti-polio drops several times. This essentially means that administering anti-polio drops was not a foolproof way of making a child immune to the disease.
This worrisome revelation came at a time when health authorities were resigned to the fact that they would not be able to meet the target of bringing polio cases to zero during the year.
They, however, put a brave face and declared from rooftops that sufficient progress had been made in the fight against polio. By the end of the year 40-odd cases of polio had been reported from all over the country.
Sindh’s share in these cases was to the tune of 60 per cent, which in itself is a commentary on the state of the anti-polio drive in the province. Another campaign, which met the similar fate, was the one to rid the province of unregistered blood banks, which often deal in substandard blood products.
It has been known since long that many blood banks, instead of providing relief to the ailing Pakistanis, actually play a role in spreading the blood-borne diseases like Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis, which are incurable.
In September 2004 the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA) launched an ambitious drive to bring to book the blood banks, which dealt in unsafe products. As a result, some seven blood banks were closed down after detailed inspections.
However, despite best efforts all the aims and objectives of the drive could not be achieved. The owners of the blood banks, who are quite influential, raised a number of difficult questions against the campaign.
They pointed out that the SBTA lacked powers to seal the blood banks. It was also claimed that threatening calls were made to the officials who were carrying out the inspections. Since then many of the blood banks, which had been closed down by the SBTA, have resumed their operations. This, in turn, has forced the governor to order that more ‘teeth’ be added to the Sindh Safe Blood Act of 1999, so that an effective campaign could be launched against the defaulting blood banks.
The health authorities are now claiming that a no-nonsense drive would be opened in January against the dubious blood banks. Whether such a campaign achieves its objectives would depend on the sincerity, or lack of it, with which it is undertaken.
Pakistan is viewed as a ‘low-prevalence but high-risk’ country when it comes to the HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). All the official documents describe the country as such, with the result that not enough attention is paid to the simmering problem that may boil over sooner than expected.
The data suggested that Pakistan should no longer be described as a ‘low-prevalence’ country. Rather, it should be viewed as a country with a concentrated epidemic of HIV/AIDS. In the last 18 months, 5,150 people have been tested for HIV/AIDS in Sindh, 315 of whom were found to be HIV positive. This meant that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS was 6.1 per cent.
In Karachi, the situation was far worse where a total of 3,154 injected drug users had been tested. The number of people testing positive in the city stood at 264, which meant that the prevalence was as high as 8.3 per cent.
Now according to internationally-accepted standards, any country with a prevalence of five per cent or more in any of the vulnerable groups should be categorized as one having a “concentrated epidemic” of HIV/AIDS. Pakistan should be given this status in view of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among abusers of injected drugs, which exceeds the cut-off point.
However, the health authorities remained adamant that Pakistan was free of HIV/AIDS epidemic. As a result, the problem continued to be consigned to the backburner, which is a dangerous act. The country was also given a rude shock with the occurrence of avian influenza, commonly known as “bird flu.” — Sci-tech World Report
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