KARACHI – Pakistan is among the high ranking countries where people are still get affected of preventable diseases like tuberculosis, polio and malaria while non-communicable diseases are raising vigorously in different cities due to apathy of the authorities concerned which is not playing its due role.
Since the 18th amendment in the constitution, the health is now a provincial chapter but till to date there is a tug of war among the major institutions due to ill management that hurt common citizens, said Dr Ahmed Salman Khan Ghauri, president of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) Karachi on Saturday.
He said that massive awareness, proper treatment and enabling environments can reduce the prevalence of the high blood pressure, which is the goal of World Health Day 2013.
“So far our health authorities have been unable to pay heed to the fact that common citizens do not get the health service promised to them.
The cases of high blood pressure are on the rise among the working class, which termed 2012 as bad year for the particular strata of the society. The risk of developing high blood pressure can be controlled by reducing salt intake; eating a balanced diet; avoiding harmful use of alcohol; taking regular physical activity; maintaining a healthy body weight and avoiding tobacco use,” he added.
High blood pressure is a silent killer as it causes no symptoms for many years while damaging certain critical organs, non serious approach towards controlling high blood pressure can cause heart attacks, kidney failure and stroke, President PIMA said.
He quoted WHO report stating that the expenditure on health per capita in Pakistan is merely $59 which is very low as it is compared to India with $132 and Sri Lanka with $148.
“There is a dire need to provide relief to masses, he said, adding that early consultation with doctors can cut down the costs on diseases. There is no population base statistics, which depicts accurately the diseases existence in our society,” he added.