THE recent approval by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the first gene therapy for congenital deafness marks a monumental shift in global medical history, but such break-throughs often remain distant dreams for developing nations. In Pakistan, the lack of infrastructure to adopt advanced biotechnological treatments highlights a growing disparity in healthcare equity.

While the world moves towards curative genetic interventions, our local healthcare system continues to struggle with basic diagnostic services for auditory ailments. Countless families with hearing-impaired children face the gruelling reality of life-long exclusion.

Students in specialised Karachi schools often lack the resources to even maintain traditional hearing aids, let alone access life-changing gene therapies. For the daily-wage workers supporting a disabled child, the financial barrier to such modern medicine is a definitive wall preventing their child’s social integration.

To address this, the government must prioritise public-private partnerships to subsidise advanced paediatric care and establish specialised genetic research centres within teaching hospitals.

A national fund for rare disease treat-ments and streamlining the import process for genetic medicine would ensure global breakthroughs reaching the vulnerable.

Manahil
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2026