KARACHI, Jan 5: Former minister of the interior Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider (retd) has underscored the need to increase community’s role in the health sector.

Speaking at a function to celebrate the second anniversary of the Manora Health Project in Manora on Sunday, he said the role of community was important in the provision of healthcare facilities.

He praised the Manora Health Project and its success in a short period of time and said such efforts should be replicated in other parts of the country.

He said the community needed encouragement from the government.

Gen Haider said the government could collect as much as Rs27 billion through donations from philanthropists, the Zakat fund and other sources.

“The donations could increase if the funds are effectively used and closely monitored. It is also important to impart health training to members of a community so that they continue to work for a long time,” he emphasized.

Quoting a study, Mr Haider said one in 10 people in the country suffered from mental health problems. “It is not difficult to figure out why this percentage is so high. All sorts of physical illnesses take a heavy toll on the mental health of a patient.”

The director of the Manora Health Project, Dr Amin Gadit, said the morbidity pattern of various diseases in the people of Manora had decreased over the past two years.

He said the anthropological project, funded by donations from philanthropists, pharmaceutical companies and the Hamdard Foundation, had treated more than 6,000 patients in the past one year.

“Two years ago the prevalence of depression used to be 11 per cent in Manora. This has come down to four per cent now. Similarly, respiratory disorders used to afflict 42 per cent of the population. Two years on, they have been brought down to 16 per cent. Gastrointestinal diseases were also quite common and used to affect 37 per cent of the population. They have been reduced to 26 per cent. In 2000, the prevalence of skin diseases was 59 per cent. In 2002, it stands at 20 per cent. Women and newborns used to suffer gynaecological and obstetrics problems at the rate of 30 per cent. This has been brought down to 17 per cent. The prevalence of diseases in children was 40 per cent two years ago. This has come down to 16 per cent.”

Dr Gadit said the anthropological project had covered the entire population of Manora as well as those patients who had come to the peninsula from the neighbouring islands.

Playwright Fatima Suraiyya Bajiya said practical skills should be imparted to members of a community so that they could augment family income easily. “If a health workers’ team trains members of a community in practical skills that come in handy in everyday life it could also help people earn a little more. This would go a long way towards poverty alleviation.”

The vice chancellor of Hamdard University, Dr Ismail Saad, said such projects needed vision to be implemented. He recalled that the late Hakim Mohammed Said had been the driving force behind such projects.

The professor emeritus at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s neurology department, Dr Hasan Aziz, said it was possible to eradicate epilepsy in Manora. “Apart from case detection, which is not very difficult in epilepsy, people have to be made aware of the disease so that they do not associate it with any stigma and continue their treatment till they are completely cured.”