MULTAN, Oct 30: Incidence of seasonal diseases is reportedly on the increase throughout the country as prevention has become a low priority for the health authorities in terms of resource allocation.
Talking to Dawn, a senior Health Department official, blamed the bureaucrats heading the health sector for the situation. He said the generalist officials lacked the proper perspective on health issues. This, he said, resulted in disproportionate allocation of resources.
He said the Punjab had allocated Rs7 billions for the health sector for the current financial year but only a few hundred thousands rupees had been earmarked for preventive health.
He said the preventive programmes, such as the extended programme for immunization, malaria control, AIDS and TB control, control of communicable diseases, provision of safe drinking water, and health education now depended, to a large extent on foreign aid and donor agencies.
As a result of the authorities’ lack of interest in preventive measures 20 per cent of the country’s population was now believed to be hepatitis-B positive, incidence of TB were on the rise and 80,000 people had tested positive for the HIV. He said a lot of donor-provided resources were misappropriated by those incharge of the preventive programmes.
Citing an example, he said polio immunization had reported 20 per cent more children as vaccinated than the entire population according to the census of 1999. He said while the census had counted 1.8 million children under five years, the health authorities claimed to have administered polio drops to about 2.3 million.
He said the authorities had allocated more resources for health facilities at district and tehsil headquarters where most of the specialist doctors had set up private clinics and hospitals in the vicinity of the state-run hospitals. As many patients preferred the private hospitals, the state-run facilities remained under-utilized.
CONTEMPT: Justice Tassaduq Husain Jillani has adjourned the contempt of court proceedings against the Punjab health secretary for two weeks on Tuesday.
A health department contractor, Javed Ahmed, had moved the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court for the payment of his bills against the construction of nursing school at the Muzaffargarh DHQ Hospital. He made secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal as the respondent.
But the secretary who never turned up allegedly refused to receive the court notices.
TERRORISM: The Bahawalpur church carnage is an open terrorism not only against the Christianity but also against the state itself.
This was stated by Justice and Peace Commission chairperson sister Norris Nawab in a press statement.
The JPC chief said it was terrorism against the state because the culprits had tried to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the country. She said the responsible be brought to the book so as to discourage the saboteur elements in the country.