The invisible system

Some epidemics can only be eradicated if they are identified and treated at the right time and at the right place.

It doesn’t take too long for one to be exposed to the government authorities’ indolence after landing at any of the airports in Pakistan. A classic example is when passengers travelling to Pakistan from countries where fatal viral infections have been reported are given a Personal Declaration of Origin and Health Card, which are then not taken back after they have been filled — a malpractice inconceivable at any international airport.

As part of the health ministry’s programme, passengers are given the card, which aims at collecting their personal and health data, some 45 minutes before they land in Pakistan. The passengers are told to return the cards at the immigration desk at the airport. But confusion begins shortly after leaving the plane when the Immigration Desk and the Civil Aviation Authority decline to accept the cards and direct the passengers to find a health inspector, who is hardly to be found by tired passengers, anxious to leave the premises. The Health Ministry has set up a health directorate at every airport in Pakistan to monitor incoming passengers. Each landing flight has its health inspector who is assigned the task of collecting health cards before passengers leave the aircraft. This, unfortunately, never happens.

While there are problems with the text of the cards which only asks for an incomplete health history of a passenger, the immediate problem is executing current policies. More than half of the passengers are not aware of the existences of the health directorate at the airport, the rest are confused by the ambiguous procedure of handing over the cards. Subsequently, the cards that are not supposed to be taken beyond the immigration desk are found filling up garbage bins at the exit or discarded on the waiting area benches. Pakistan cannot overcome its health challenges unless the government has records of each incoming person. Some infections and epidemics can only be eradicated if they are identified and treated at the right time and at the right place.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2013.

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