Every 10th child born alive in the country, dies before reaching the age of one year, said Dr Sheharyar Bhatti, Secretary General Pakistan Society of Family Physicians (PSFP). 'Although there has been slight decline in the overall mortality rate in the developing world during the last four or five decades, the infant and child mortality rates still remain high in the country', he added.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday, Dr Bhatti said that the incidence of child deaths varies in different areas of the country and situation is dismal in backward areas.
'Most of the deaths occurred in children are due to infectious diseases which can be easily tackled through providing necessary medical facilities at the effected areas. As a matter of fact, a high level of infant and child mortality is not only an indicator but an important yardstick of poverty. The other factors of child mortality included mother's education and working status, electricity and food connections, food poverty, crowded houses and water contamination. The incidence of child mortality is higher in rural areas due to a concentration of medical facilities in cities', he added.
According to him, mother's education and working status are important because of her intimacy with the child. Her behaviour in seeking and providing health care for her sick children may be an important determinant for child survival. This behavior may vary from an uneducated to an educated mother and from an employed to an unemployed one.
The incidence of child mortality is high when mothers are young and lack the maturity required for taking care of the new-born. This inverse relationship between mother's age and child mortality is quite obvious at least up to the maternal age of 19 to 21 years.
Dr Bhatti further said that the incidence of child mortality is higher with working mothers. Moreover, child mortality is considerably higher with the rural working mothers.
He was of the view that the source of water has a stronger influence on child mortality in urban areas. Contamination of water is an important cause of child morbidity and mortality, he added.
'Pakistan has an unacceptable high level of infant and child mortality; the main cause identified was the low female literacy rate. The other contributing factors were the low-income level, malnutrition and the lack of healthcare facilities', he pointed out.
To a question, he said that PSFP is going to initiate a comprehensive programme in collaboration with the government for imparting necessary training to general physicians working in rural areas so as to check mortality rate. He also urged the government to chalk out a well thought out strategy to check child-related ailments, which are on rise in the country.
Talking about child abuse problem, he said increasing reports of child-abuse cases were still the tip of the iceberg as the majority of such incidents went unreported on account of social and cultural reasons that prevented the victims and their families from making their plight a public issue. He said that measures must be taken to rectify the situation and ugly realities should not be ignored.
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