Non-communicable diseases, which are basically modern life-style diseases, are now estimated to be responsible for over 37percent of the disease burden of our population.
Punjab Minister for Population Welfare, Neelam Jabbar Chaudhry said here on Friday that while still struggling to reduce mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and malnutrition, the epidemic of non-communicable disease had caught up with us.
Responding to different challenges being faced in the delivery of healthcare in the province, the Punjab government has introduced reforms in health sector through regeneration of existing resources, to achieve the target of provision of better healthcare services to the masses, with special focus on poor and unprivileged people in urban and rural areas alike.
In Pakistan itself, more than 40percent of the adult population over the age of 45 suffers from one form or the other of non-communicable disease, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer and the trend seems to be on the rise, she said. This increasing trend is likely to double the burden of disease in countries such as ours and is likely to have significant health economic implications as a result of cost of care and lost productivity costs, she added.
Overall, chronic diseases now account for 60percent of premature deaths annually and about 15-20percent of all cases of ischaemic heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. In quantitative terms, we the dwellers of the low and middle-income countries, suffer the greatest from the impact of non-communicable diseases, she added.
She said that Rs 58.64 billion would be spent on social sector development programme whereas, Rs 30 billion has been earmarked for educational development projects and Rs 26.10 billion would be spent for the provision of healthcare facilities to the masses in the current fiscal year.
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