Child mortality: Govt commits to new diarrhoea control plan

LAHORE:

The government on Friday committed to cooperate and coordinate for the seven-point agenda based diarrhoea control programme, which is to be launched by Save the Children in the Punjab.

Speakers at the concluding session of the consultation on diarrohea control stressed the need to reduce child mortality through diarrohea in Pakistan. In Punjab, diarrhoea is the second biggest cause of disease for children under five years.

The consultation had been organised by Save the Children and the Policy Strategic and Planning Unit.

The government also advised the PSPU to consider Save the Children recommendations and provide assistance and support to ensure that the programme is successfully implemented.

The local government and the Public Health Engineering Department also gave their consent and committed to ensure the effective delivery of a diarrhoea control and prevention programme.

During group discussions, the experiences of local bodies, the PHED, NGOs and stakeholders in the corporate sector were shared.

The statement said the control programme would focus on decreasing deaths due to diarrhoea, which is around 26,000 deaths of children under five annually. The programme will adopt innovative ways to increase awareness among mothers to control diarrhoea.

Health Special Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar admitted to the Health Department’s failure in meeting the Millennium Development Goals regarding child mortality rate. He said they would be closer to meeting the target next year.

Hafizabad and Khanewal districts have been selected for a diarrhoea control pilot project.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2014.