3m suffered from malaria post-flood, PAC panel told
A patient suffering from dengue fever sits under a mosquito net inside a dengue and malaria ward at the Sindh Government Services Hospital in Karachi September 21, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS
A subcommittee of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Thursday that around 3 million people suffered from malaria, following the devastating floods last year.
The subcommittee met here with its convener Syed Hussain Tariq in the chair. The meeting expressed its dissatisfaction with the performance of the Malaria Control Programme and ordered its officials to take immediate steps, particularly in Sindh.
The meeting was held to review the audit objections pertaining to the health minister from 2005-06 and 2017-18. The participants expressed their displeasure with the fact that the departmental accounts committees had not been holding meetings for several months.
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During the meeting, it was revealed that 3 million people in the country had malaria after the floods last year. Tariq observed that the people did not have houses in flood-affected areas, adding: “I have not seen the Malaria Control Programme [officials] in those areas.”
What was the Malaria Control Programme doing in the affected areas, Tariq asked. The programme officials replied that malaria was a disease in rural. However, Tariq asked whether the diseases did not affect the urban areas?
Urban and rural areas were submerged,” he said, asking that what was the cost of running the Malaria Control Programme in the rural areas? The subcommittee sought details from the programme officials about the measures taken in the flood-affected areas.