KARACHI, April 16: The city government will focus on preventive healthcare measures to protect the citizens from different illnesses, rather than totally relying on curative aspect, said acting City Nazim Tariq Hasan at a seminar on preventive health.
The seminar was organized by the health department of the city government to create public awareness about preventive health while specifically focusing on vitamin A deficiency among children and hazards of polio.
Tariq Hasan said despite spending huge amount on health facilities, the government had not been able to achieve the desired results, while the situation was even worse in rural areas.
He said the results of the polio eradication drive had been far better after introduction of the devolution of power plan as compared to that under the previous system. He hoped that similar results would also be achieved to supplement Vitamin A.
He said efforts were needed to create awareness among the masses about prevention from different kinds of diseases and malnutrition that could become fatal and crippling for the children.
The acting Nazim said even the most advanced and developed countries felt that providing curative medicines to all the citizens was more expensive than arranging for preventive health services which would also keep the new generation healthy.
“If one child develops any kind of handicap, it means that it is the weakening of the future generation and the whole of the society is responsible for making the future generation strong in all aspects,” he stated.
WHO representative Dr Azmoudeh said there were 23 countries in the year 2000 where more than 20 cases of polio were reported while at present only Pakistan, India and Nigeria remained with the problem.
However, conditions have improved considerably in Pakistan as only eight cases were reported in the country this year as compared to 24 in India, he added.
With the success of previous campaigns, he hoped that polio would be eradicated by the year 2002 but cent per cent results could not be assured as many areas have been ignored.
Dr Azmoudeh said the residents of the posh areas in Karachi were more reluctant to get their children administered polio drops and named a number of areas where polio eradication staff had not been successful in administering the vaccines.
EDO (health) Dr Ali Nawaz Sheikh informed about the administering of vitamin A during the polio eradication campaign.
Children from the age group of six to 12 months will be given blue capsule, while those above one year up to the age of five years will be administered red capsule.
He said after the devolution system the average success rate in the city had reached more than 90 per cent which was a record and called upon the elected representatives, NGOs and concerned officials to work in coordination so that polio could be eradicated from the country by the end of this year.
Prof D.S. Akram of Dow Medical Collage, Dr Jafri of Spencer Eye Hospital gave presentations on deficiency of vitamin A and its hazardous effects, including loss of vision, impaired growth of bones and teeth, stone formation, respiratory problems, dryness of skin and even infertility in some women.
It was informed that as per studies conducted by the WHO and the UNICEF more than 200 million children, mainly in the developing and under-developed countries, suffered from vitamin A deficiency.
Speakers said Vitamin A could be stored in the body and it was suggested that people must change their eating habits and take such foods which contained high level of vitamin A, such as green and yellow fruits and vegetables, carrots, cabbage, apricot, sweet potatoes fish liver oil, egg yolk, liver, kidney, butter and milk.—PPI