Professional regulation: PMA for anti-quackery website, helpline

Pledges support for campaign against quacks.

LAHORE: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has asked the government to launch an anti-quackery website and helpline. 

PMA officer bearers met on Sunday to discuss measures that could be taken to counter quackery.

They suggested that the government devise a six-month plan to tackle the issue. They urged involvement of doctors’ associations in the crackdown against quackery.

Dr Ashraf Nizami said that these quacks were playing with the lives of people and should be dealt with according to the law. “Thousands of quacks are running their clinics. More than 200 people died after getting treatment from these quacks during the recent dengue outbreak,” he said.

PMA office bearers said that setting up a website and helpline would make people more aware about quackery and report about quacks to the authorities concerned.

Quoting from a recent PMA survey on quacks, they said that quacks posed as dentists were a main source of spreading hepatitis in the city. Talking about the use of unsterilised equipment, Dr Salman Kazmi said, “Spread of hepatitis and other viral diseases cannot be checked if unsterilised equipment continues to be used. Same goes for sharing of syringes.”

The doctors also pledged PMA’s support to the government for the anti-quackery campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2011.