KARACHI, April 10: About 39 million people in Pakistan might be suffering from malaria, which kills 84 out of every 10,000 victims every year in the country. This was stated by Director of the Malaria Control Programme, Islamabad, Dr Aslam Khan while addressing a seminar on Management of Malaria and Rational Use of Anti-Malarial Drugs, organized by the government in collaboration with the WHO and the Role Back Malaria and Malaria Control Programme (RBM), here on Sunday.

Prof S. M. Rub (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) was the chief guest while Dr Aslam Hafiz, Dr Aslam Khan and Dr Sharif Khan were the main speakers at the seminar which was attended by doctors from all over the country.

Dr Aslam Khan stressed the need for creating awareness in masses about malaria. He pointed out that malaria could be controlled if diagnosed early and prompt treatment, being a principal technical component, was a global strategy towards controlling the disease. Effectiveness of this intervention highly depends on the anti-malarial drug being administered.

Dr Sharif Khan described that current prevalence of malaria in the country, especially in Balochistan and FATA, as ‘alarming’, saying that the current mortality rate in the two regions was four per 1,000 per year.

Dr Kutbuddin Kakar, a WHO official in Islamabad, said that malaria killed about one million people every year in the world. Certificates were distributed among the participants at the end of the seminar.—PPI