Government spends $7 less than WHO's prescribed $44 for each person on health

Pakistan spends $37 per head on health that is lower than the World Health Organisation's prescribed minimum $44 for each person's health. Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16 notes that total public health expenditure as percentage of GDP increased to 0.45 percent in fiscal year 2016 amounting to a total of Rs133.9 billion - an increase of 17.2 percent over corresponding period of last financial year.
Malaria is the second most prevalent communicable disease in the country and remains the major cause of morbidity in Pakistan. More than 90% of disease burden in the country is shared by 56 highly endemic districts, mostly located in Balochistan (17 out of 32 districts), FATA (7 agencies), Sindh (12 districts) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (12 districts).
Most of the reported cases from these districts are due to falciparum malaria which is the most dangerous form of malaria.
FATA is the second highest malaria-affected belt of the country which accounts for 12-15% of the total case-load of the country, the Survey states.
Polio eradication is the foremost priority of the government and the Survey claims tangible improvement in polio control with the number of polio cases declining from 306 reported in 2014 to 54 in 2015 - a decline of 82 percent. In 2016 so far only 9 cases have been reported countrywide, KPK (04) Sindh (04) and Balochistan (01).
Pakistan and Afghanistan are two countries in which polio has not been fully eradicated; this year Afghanistan detected four polio case and Pakistan has detected eight, whereas, the rest of the world has eradicated polio, the Survey states.
Achievements in the health sector during 2016 included establishment of 7 Rural Health Centres (RHCs), 32 Basic Health Units (BHUs) and up gradation of 10 existing RHCs and 37 BHUs.
The manpower included the addition of 4500 new doctors, 450 dentists, 3500 nurses, 4550 paramedics and 475 Traditional Birth Attendants.
Under the preventive program, about 7 million children have been immunised and 21 million packets of the ORS have been distributed during 2016.
Till now, 4500 HIV positive cases have been reported to the National and Provincial AIDS Control Programs.
The total number of the TB patients in the country is 211,500 up to the third quarter of 2016 and the treatment success rate remained 91%, the Survey states.