ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Syed Mustafa Kamal, on Wednesday said Pakistan would not be able to control its growing disease burden unless prevention, screening, clean drinking water and public health awareness were prioritised.
Responding to a question during Question-Hour in the National Assembly, the minister said the Ministry of Health had limited financial resources because, under the constitutional arrangement, most funds and administrative authority for the health sector had been devolved to the provinces.
Pakistan has nearly 11 million Hepatitis C cases, with about 80% undiagnosed due to weak screening, said Syed Mustafa Kamal. He said the government, on the initiative of Shehbaz Sharif, has launched a free nationwide screening and treatment programme, starting in Islamabad and expanding to 1,000 centres within a year, at a cost of Rs67 billion.
He warned that late diagnosis is driving rising liver cancer cases and stressed early screening and prevention to reduce deaths. Referring to Thalassaemia, the minister thanked lawmakers for supporting legislation related to pre-marital screening of couples.
The minister said Pakistan’s healthcare system was overburdened because the country had effectively become a “factory producing patients”, where hospitals were under immense pressure while insufficient attention was being paid to preventive healthcare. He stressed the need to expand family birth spacing, immunisation coverage, access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation systems. The minister said around 6.13 million children were born annually in Pakistan, adding that rapid population growth and poor sanitation were worsening health challenges. He said nearly 68 per cent of diseases in Pakistan were linked to contaminated water and urged all segments of society, including government institutions, parliamentarians and citizens, to play their role in addressing the crisis.
Replying to a question raised by Shehryar Afridi, the minister said some institutions were enrolling students without obtaining mandatory approval from the Pakistan Nursing Council. Answering a question by Shaista Pervaiz Malik, the minister said Pakistan was currently administering vaccines against 13 diseases and described the cervical cancer vaccine campaign as one of the country’s most successful public health initiatives.
