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World Kidney Day was observed throughout Pakistan last week to bring home the miseries of kidney patients and the need for medical attention toward this killer ailment. The coverage of this event was prominent in English newspapers only, whereas, the electronic media and the Urdu press did not find the subject of much importance and worthy of publicising it.
The readership of English newspapers is negligible as compared with Urdu, Sindhi or the vernacular press. Keeping in mind the circulation of major English newspapers (three only), hardly 300,000 people, if at all, read it out of a population of 160 million.
The combined circulation of Urdu, Sindhi and vernacular newspapers is ten times that of the English newspapers. The contents of English newspaper get around slowly, whereas, the message through the Urdu, Sindhi and vernacular newspapers spreads like wild fire-through extended reading and word of mouth.
Those who can read English are also able to read and speak one more language as compared to those who are unable to read English are usually restricted to reading and speaking only one language. The exposure to more than one language equips one with tools for critical thinking, analysing and rationalising problems better than those who are restricted to only one language.
The awareness campaign about kidney diseases through English newspapers created little stir, as most of the readers are already aware of the complications that kidney diseases follow. For them all that was published served only as reminders, and refreshed their knowledge about the kidney disease and its management.
The purpose of the awareness campaign through English newspapers served no purpose except reminding the policymakers their responsibility toward poor population of Pakistan that has begun to fall victim to increasing kidney diseases. Deliberate effort to educate people through Urdu and Sindhi press was not made during the kidney week. Neither there was any discussion how newspapers of Urdu and Sindhi could be used to educate people.
There is no denying the fact that the news content, advertisement and services messages in other than English newspapers, usually directed toward less literate people, create impression. Information about the availability of different services such dietary plans, slimming centres, skin health and colour improvement creams appear in skilfully drafted copies of advertisements. The sale figures of these products prove that regular advertising has its effect.
Publication of news and advertisements about therapeutic and spiritual treatment of physical and mental illness find more space in other than English newspapers. The constant hammering of these messages, through advertisements, secures a kind of acceptance among the non-English newspaper readers. There is uncontrollable expansion of quackery of all kinds.
It is through the publicity of quackery, spurious drugs and counterfeit medicines through Urdu and Sindhi newspapers that a large number of people are misguiding semi-literate population suffering from different diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and kidney diseases.
The advertisements of cheap drugs and 'one-week-treatment plan' that claim to cure kidney ailments are frequent. The clinics that provide treatments are set up in localities where poverty and illiteracy prevail. The signboards of these clinics carry catchy slogans to lure patients into the trap. Once trapped, these patients end up in complicating their problems. They die heavily indebted to their benefactors.
After the death of the patient, the family pays the debt and clears other liabilities accrued during his treatment. To get rid of this vicious circle is not easy and not without parting away with substantial amount of saving that might have been saved by the patient for the use of his family members.
During the Kidney awareness programmes, advice against quackery was not highlighted and facts were not winnowed from fiction to equip the less informed people with knowledge necessary to fight against ignorance. There was little emphasis on patient's education.
Going by the data on kidney diseases one finds that 10 percent population of the Indo-Pak subcontinent suffers from kidney problems whereas 80 percent of the global spending on kidney diseases is concentrated in the developed world. Newspapers of the developed world available on the Internet have covered World Kidney day in most befitting manner aimed at highlighting increase in kidney problems, need for research and development of affordable drugs for treatment and mobilisation of resources to develop state-of-the-art facility in facility-deficient areas. The developed world is spending over one trillion dollars on kidney disease management, whereas, in countries such as Pakistan where trained manpower to deal with kidney diseases management is available, government support is missing.
In Pakistan, statistics collected on kidney diseases and facility for its treatment do not give the right profile of the situation. After scanning four major newspapers (January 2007-January 2008), two English and two Urdu, it came to light that nothing worth mentioning about governmental efforts regarding kidney diseases was published during this period.
The lone voice that could be heard in this callous quietude was that of Dr Adeeb-ul-Hasan Rizvi of SIUT, the state-of-the-art kidney treatment facility in Pakistan, who continued to demand for cadaver transplantation law but in vain.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

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