So said Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Friday evening at a workshop entitled “Cardiovascular-interventions in Developing Countries” — or simply “CDC-2003”. The three-day programme is being organized by the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases on its premises.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Dr Ibad said that Pakistan had traditionally been facing the challenges posed by communicable diseases. “But now there has also been an explosion in the non-communicable diseases, which are led by hypertension and high blood pressure.”
He said the country faced a particularly grave challenge in the healthcare sector. “However, the government is trying its best to utilize the resources available both in health education and healthcare delivery areas.”
The WHO had ranked heart ailments as the number one killer, said the governor. “And in the first quarter of the current century, it is expected to remain the number one killer.”
Dr Ibad pointed out that the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases not only treated patients from all over the country but also from countries like Afghanistan.
In his welcome address, the NICVD’s executive director, Prof Azhar Masood Faruqui, said the country was facing an epidemic of heart ailments. “In the initial years it was thought that heart diseases were a problem of the western countries.
“But some research studies undertaken in the 1960s had shown that the ailments were quite common in Pakistan too.” The professor said that according to some studies up to 60 per cent of all deaths in the country could be linked to cardiac complications.
“Forty per cent of the deaths account for only 40 per cent of the remaining deaths.”
He pointed out that working in the area of heart diseases required considerable capital as well as manpower. “So this is both a capital- and labour-intensive proposition.”
Prof Faruqui said his institute had seen a 1,000 per cent increase in the number of patients it handled every year. “The answer so far as efficient delivery of healthcare is concerned lies in high technology.”
He pointed out that the time required for transfer of technology had reduced considerably over the years.
Not so long ago, it used to take several years for a procedure developed in the western countries to reach the developing countries. But now techniques developed only a few months ago had already reached Pakistan, he said.
The vote of thanks was presented by Prof Brig Azhar M. Kyani.
Later, the governor presented shields to the foreign delegates. The countries from where the foreign delegates had come included the United States, Turkey, Singapore and Malaysia.
Later still, the guests of honour visited the stalls set up in connection with an exhibition organized on the sidelines of the workshop.
One interesting feature of the three-day event is that its proceedings will be witnessed by people in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Singapore and New York. The footage of the proceedings is being relayed to the said cities through internet and video- conferencing techniques.