KARACHI: The Central Health Minister, Kazi Anwarul Haque, yesterday [Feb 20] emphasised that there was no more promising field in medicine than the prevention of disease in childhood and highlighted the role of the practising physician in safeguarding children’s health

In his inaugural address at the third Afro-Asian Paediatric Congress at Beach Luxury Hotel, he said the Government was fully alive to the problem of child health and the fact that “on their sound health depends the national progress”. The Central Health Minister found it “disquieting” that many preventable diseases were prevalent in Asia and Africa and “children are the worst sufferers”.

“In Pakistan, as in all other developing countries, sickness and mortality amongst children are quite high,” he said, and recounted “poor sanitation, inadequate nutrition, insufficient medical facilities and meagre parental care, etc.” as the causative factors.

The answer to this problem, he said, was “suitable maternal and child health services, facilities for control of infectious diseases, sanitary control of environment, supply of pure water and organised proper research into the causes of high morbidity and mortality amongst children”.

Stressing that the Government of Pakistan was doing its utmost and had placed great emphasis on public health, Kazi Anwarul Haque summarised the progress made in Pakistan in steps to control diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, smallpox, cholera and leprosy. He pointed out that as against the allocation of Rs280 million in the First Five-Year Plan, Rs370 million and Rs1,210 million had been provided in the Second and Third Five-Year Plans respectively for public health.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2018