'Pakistan facing distressing public health challenges'

Pakistan is facing a distressing public health challenges where about half of the population is under the age of 20 years and about 30 million people are in the category of adolescents between the age group of 10-19 years.
Adolescents face various problems and challenges including; drugs use, sexual abuse, risk taking behaviour, peer pressure and various risks including HIV/AIDS.
This was said by speakers on the occasion of 30th National Conference on 'Advocacy for Reproductive Health: A Roadmap to Millennium Development Goals' which held under the auspices of Maternity and Child Welfare Association of Pakistan (MCWAP) here at a local hotel on Tuesday.
Addressing the inaugural session, Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab, Saba Sadiq said the government was taking all out steps to improve the health condition of women and children.
She said that credit should go to President General Pervez Musharraf who directed the concerned authorities to allocate maximum resources for health sector. She said that poor reproductive health status of women demands that more and more NGOs like MCWAP should come forward to improve the state of women and child health.
She assured that government would extend all out support to MCWAP, which is rendering valuable services to flourish state of both women and infant healthcare.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr Mahmuda Mubashra, President MCWAP emphasised on the high rate of mother and child mortality and rapid increase in population was a matter of grave concern.
'If we want to accelerate the pace of national development, speedy increment of population growth needs to be tackled on priority basis,' she said. The topic of the First session was 'health status of women in Pakistan'. The speakers of the session were Professor Dr Shaheena Asif, Professor of Gynae, Gurki Hospital, Dr Nabeela Ali of PAIMAN, Dr Aman Ullah Khan, Deputy Director, Save the Children-US, Dr Farrukh Zaman, Professor of Gynae, Services Hospital, Lahore.
These speakers maintained that millions of lives are at stake in developing countries around the world on account of high infant mortality rate, rapid increase in population growth and HIV/AIDS pandemic, etc. They focused on public-private partnership was the need of time and they should work together for achieving the goal of healthy society, they added.
Dr Nabeela Ali added that life-threatening complications occur in 15% of all births but a skilled birth attendant can make a difference between the life and death. On the occasion Dr Aman Ullah Khan said that every year an estimated 4 million babies die in the first 4 weeks of life. He said that advanced technology and medical care is needed to substantially reduce the burden of death and disease among the new-born.
The topic of the second session was 'women empowerment and reproductive health'. Dr Muhammad Hafeez, Peter C. Miller, deputy country representative, population Council, Islamabad, Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi and Qadeer Baig spoke on the subject. Peter C. Miller said on the occasion that the role of husband could not be ignored and the matter of great importance in women's empowerment.
For reproductive health particularly in Pakistan, where a male remains a dominating figure, the husband's involvement in the couple's reproductive health is a practical requirement for empowering women. However, men are considered to be a decision-maker, reproductive health is typically deemed to be within women's sphere of action; men are often ill-informed and reluctant to get involved.
There is a considerable evidence in Pakistan that men are willing to play far more positive roles in supporting reproductive health than they typically do now, and that women strongly welcome that involvement, he added. The topic of the third session was 'public-private partnership & reproductive health.' The speakers were Dr Yaseen Malik, Dr Talat Iqbal, Dr Naeemuddin Mian and Dr Abdul Wajid.
The topic of the 4th session was 'combating HIV/AIDS and specific communicable diseases. The speakers were Dr Aldo Landi, Dr Faisal Mansoor, Dr Darkshan Badar and Dr Sharif Khan. The speakers said that TB was chiefly due to poorly managed TB control programme, poverty, population growth and migration and rise of TB cases in HIV endemic areas.
Ms Attia Hanif Executive Director, MCWAP told Business Recorder that maternal mortality rate (MMR) is high in Pakistan, while malnutrition is one of the major reasons for this high maternal mortality rate. Nevertheless, malnutrition affects 34 percent of pregnant women. Around 48 percent of lactating mothers have a calorie intake of 70 percent less than the recommended level. This is bad for the health of the mother as well as the baby.
According to her, 45 percent of Pakistani women suffer from iron deficiency that results in stillbirths, birth defects, mental retardation and infant deaths. Haemorrhage, hypertension, unsafe abortion, infections and prolonged labour are other factors contributing to the higher mortality rate among women in rural areas.
Ms Attia Hanif further said that since its inception, MCWAP has been stimulating the policy makers, planners, managers as well as the community leaders to create awareness and commitment to improve the health status of women and children, who constitute two third of the total population. According to an estimate, 65% of total young people in Pakistan remain unaware of the above challenges and don't have any access to basic information and skills to protect themselves, speakers pointed out.