Health in Pakistan

[18] The government of Pakistan has also started "Sehat Sahulat Program", whose vision is to work towards social welfare reforms, guaranteeing that the lower class within the country gets access to basic medical care without financial risks.

[20] Infectious diseases remain one of the biggest threats to health care in Pakistan, and are considered a major challenge in the field of medicine.

In this article, the author seeks to review the trends of major communicable diseases in Pakistan, outline the gaps of data availability and despite a plenty of literature available on research articles, the author points out that there are specific areas which lacks information on this topic and it clearly points out the issues faced by the country in dealing with these disease burdens.

[37] Pakistan has the sixth highest number of people in the world with diabetes; every fourth adult is overweight or obese; cigarettes are cheap; antismoking and road safety laws are poorly enforced.

[49] World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "Pakistan also needs to stop transmission of the virus from Afghanistan.

[50] The former National AIDS Control Programme (it was developed with the Health Ministry) and the UNAIDS states that there are an estimated 97,000 HIV positive individuals in Pakistan.

However, these figures are based on dated opinions and inaccurate assumptions; and are inconsistent with available national surveillance data which suggest that the overall number may closer to 40,000.

While type 2 diabetes which more common, is caused when the body doesn't produce enough insulin or becomes resistant to it, often due to lifestyle factors like poor diet and inactivity.

Since many contraception users are sterilized (38%), the actual number of women accessing any family planning services in a given year are closer to 3 million with over half buying either condoms or pills from stores directly.

The single most important factor that has confounded efforts to promote family planning in Pakistan is the lack of consistent supply of commodities and services.

[76] This data suggests that while women's access to healthcare has likely improved in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, contributing to the overall reduction in maternal mortality, Sindh and Balochistan still face significant challenges in enhancing and ensuring adequate health service delivery, owing to geographical isolation, difficult terrain, and political instability.

According to a survey done in 2019 by PMSS in all regions across Pakistan (excluding AJK and Gilgit Baltistan), 96% of all maternal deaths were the result of direct complications while 4% were from indirect.

According to a study conducted in Sindh, a primarily rural province in the south of Pakistan, a higher percentage of women (89.9%) who gave birth at home lacked formal education.

Factors strongly linked to home deliveries included older age, lack of education, high parity, influence of family, religious and traditional beliefs and absence of antenatal care visits.

In the past 40 years, there have been major improvements in maternal health in Pakistan, owing to well-timed interventions targeting the vulnerable parts of society.

[80] Launched in 2007, with a collaboration with WHO and UNICEF, this program's goal was to increase access to skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care in the case of labor complications.

The program was a sustainable move on the government's part as it focused on health education as well as immunizations as a preventative measure and bring down both the maternal morbidity and mortality.

It particularly focused on providing health insurance for pregnant women as well as covering childbirth-related expenses, including delivery and emergency obstetric care for a major part of the rural population.

Targeting the part of society which is most vulnerable to maternal mortality cases by providing antenatal and postnatal care made a large impact in the overall women health of Pakistan.

However, this doesn't mean that only infirmity and disorders are considered, there are multiple other things whose presence and/or absence can lead to low child health.

To meet the targets, Umeed-e-Nau was established in 2016 to provide effective and proven Maternal and Newborn Child Health interventions in the areas of Pakistan where burden of disease was the highest.

[84] This project utilizes the already present public sector health centers in Pakistan both at the community and facility level to reduce the perinatal mortality by at least 20% from the baseline.

[88] Neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections, diarrhea, congenital birth defects and malaria caused the most deaths in children under five years of age.

COVID19 Response: Strengthen the healthcare system to handle pandemics and ensure that routine and emergency maternal and child health services continue.

Implementing these interventions requires coordinated efforts between government bodies, healthcare providers, communities, and international organizations to create a supportive environment for improving child health outcomes.

Urbanisation and an unhealthy, energy-dense diet (the high presence of oil and fats in Pakistani cooking), as well as changing lifestyles, are among the root causes contributing to obesity in the country.

[96] According to National Nutrition Survey Pakistan (NNS 2018), The study estimated the proportion of overweight children under five to be 9.5%, twice the target set by the World Health Assembly.

[103] The worst example of climate change impact on health in Pakistan was 2022 flooding which submerged about one third of the country, affecting 33 million people, half of whom were children.

[106] Over 2.5 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and Malaria outbreaks have been reported in at least 12 districts of Sindh and Balochistan.

[108] It was reported in August 2023 that approximately 100,000 people have been evacuated from flooded villages in Punjab, with over 175 rain-related deaths in whole of Pakistan during this monsoon season, primarily due to electrocution and building collapses.