Pakistan Faces Health Emergency.

Pakistan Faces Health Emergency. 

Pakistan is facing health emergency as 352,000 children die every year before reaching the age of five. The country has the highest rate of first day new born and still birth deaths in the world and lead to deaths of 28,000 mothers every year.  Yet health is the most under reported sector in Pakistani media.

The role of media in highlighting health issues is often affected due to lack of information. It is time that the media should take up this issue and report it with such consistency that it pressurizes the policy makers to focus on their responsibility.

Awareness about breastfeeding remains a low priority area for the government as well as the media. Breastfeeding has increased at a snail pace in the last five years i.e .6 % while bottled milk has sharply risen to over 12% raising concerns over the health authorities efforts to promote breastfeeding.

This was the crux of discussion at the two-day health reporters training workshop held in Islamabad. The workshop was conducted by Save the children in collaboration with Mishal Pakistan.

Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jahangir mentioned that Pakistan’s health budget is still the lowest and under 1 per cent which is the lowest in the region and the world. 80 per cent of the budget accounts for salaries and existing costs. Pakistan medical association claims that corruption and mismanagement is rampant in the health sector. According to PMA the health situation cannot improve unless the budget is enhanced to at least 8 per cent.

The government embroiled in current political issues is giving almost no attention to the child mortality and mother mortality issues which require immediate attention.

Lead trainer and senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi told the workshop participants that most of the health targets, government of Pakistan committed at the international level under Millennium Development Goals No 4 & 5 for 2015, are certain to be missed. Instead most of the targets that were to be achieved by next year now been put in Vision 2025. Although most political parties in their manifestos mention health as their priority but the moment they come to power, the health sector remains neglected.

After 18^th Amendment health is now a provincial responsibility but the centre still supervises vaccination campaign and other major health initiatives. The lack of clarity on the devolution of health sector has led to confusion which was evident in last year’s measles deaths in Sindh. Lack of vaccination, poor health facilities and water and sanitation issues are compounding the problems as health workers throughout the country are currently battling to curtail polio which is reaching to a record level this year.

The reporters need to join hands with civil society and adopt innovative ways to bring health issues in focus in the media before it gets too late.

Dr. Samina Naeem Khalid, Assistant Professor, Department of Maternal, Neonatal & Child Health, Health Services Academy told the workshop that a coordinated effort from all stakeholders can drastically reduce child mortality.

Investigative journalist Umar Cheema said human profiling of health stories coupled with investigative journalism can bring back the issue in the mainstream media.

Marriyum Aurangzeb, MNA and Chairperson Parliamentary Taskforce on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said that media can play vital role in helping the provincial and the federal government in highlighting challenges that still confronts the country in meeting the MDGs target. She also distributed the certificated among the participants of workshop.

Over 300,000 children die every year due to malnutrition in Pakistan

Over 300,000 children die every year due to malnutrition in Pakistan

The health sector in Pakistan needs immediate media attention to highlight deteriorating child health issues in particular. The shocking facts are that Pakistan has the highest number of first day child deaths in the world- breastfeeding not increased even 1 per cent in the last five years while malnutrition is affecting half of mothers and children amongst Pakistani population.

Save the Children campaign EVERYONE is aiming to change that and seeks active media support.  For the purpose a two-day training workshop is conducted in Karachi on September 22/23 for health journalists.

Prof. Dr. Iqbal memon, President Pakistan Paediatric Association disclosed that over 450,000 children die before reaching the age of five out of which 300,000 children die every year in Pakistan due to malnutrition this in a seminar on child mortality held by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Save the children. He said that in Sindh alone every 3^rd new-born child is affected by malnutrition.

The sole purpose is to not only apprise the health reporters and media representatives about the alarming current situation on child and mother health issues which are getting worse because of marginal increase in the health budget which accounts for less than even 1 per cent. Pakistan Medical Association believes that a budgetary allocation of 6 per cent is a minimum to improve mother and child health issues.

Save the Children provincial representative told the training session that it is willing to facilitate media representatives to highlight the issues.

Pakistan’s performance on health and nutrition indicates a deplorable public healthcare system in the country, becoming an impediment to eradicating poverty due to lack of proper governance measures required despite the increase in expenditure to Rs. 102 billion in 2013-14. The Govt since 18^th Amendment has been unable to produce a robust policy which is centric to human capital development in the country; said Puruesh Chaudhary, Founder and President AGAHI.

Pakistan is certain to miss targets of Millennium Development goals No 4 & 5 which relates to child and mother mortality in 2015. The targets have now been included in Vision 2025 by the Government of Pakistan, which were supposed to be achieved by 2015.

But as it is said that it is never too late the media, civil society and health organizations can join hands and create a pressure on policy makers to get their priorities right and focus on child health issues.

Breastfeeding stands at a record low of 37.7 per cent in Pakistan while bottle feeding has increased to over 42 per cent showing a sharp rise of over 11 per cent in the past five years as compared to breastfeeding which has registered an increase of .6 per cent in the last five years.

Agahi’s lead trainer Mubashir Zaidi told the training participants that media is acting as an agent of change but seems to be losing its direction by focusing more on politics and conflict areas rather that reporting on social issues that includes health and education. He also asked journalists to make use of social media to create awareness amongst youth to raise their voice for a better health system in Pakistan.  He said editors should also give importance to health stories and encourage reporters to do more health reports

President Karachi Press Club, told the journalists that reporting on health should be enhanced in the media in order to pressure the authorities to improve the health sector. He asked the media to uncover corruption and mismanagement in the hospitals and also highlight negligence on part of some doctors who discourage breastfeeding and suggest bottled milk after getting favours from some companies which promote bottled milk.

Asif Farooqi, Chief Operation Officer for Mishal Pakistan a country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum, said that this year’s Agahi awards will also be focusing on health reporters for producing relevant content on challenges related to mother and child health.

Syed Nasir Shah, MPA of PPP, who is also the member of Infant Feeding Board told the media that the government is taking all necessary measures to encourage breast-feeding. He distributed certificates among the participants.