A third of all children in FATA without medical care

ISLAMABAD: One in three children in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas does not have access to health care facilities. World Health Organisation’s Director General Dr Margaret Chan said this at a press conference at a hotel in Islamabad on Thursday.

She added that about half of the 97 polio cases reported in Pakistan since January this year are from tribal areas.

The prevalence of polio cases in the tribal belt is high because of the security situation, which “restricts access to health care for many children”. The security situation also precludes government and non-government organisations from going to tribal areas to conduct polio vaccination drives.

“The devastating floods have made the polio situation even more challenging. We are at a critical moment in the fight against polio and we cannot let down our guard,” she said, adding that both President Asif Ali Zardari and Health Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin had expressed their determination to eradicate polio from the country during their meeting with her.

Dr Chan is currently visiting Pakistan to review the progress of health relief and recovery efforts in flood-affected areas. One of the purposes of her visit is also to promote polio eradication from the country.

WHO’s humanitarian partners, she said, were trying to rapidly scale-up their efforts for health care in flood-affected communities as people have started to go back to their homes.

“WHO is working closely with the Ministry of Health and its health cluster partners to alleviate the misery and suffering of the people who have returned to their damaged homes and lost livelihoods,” Dr Chan said.

WHO’s Regional Director Dr Hussein Abdul Razzak Gezairy, who was also at the press conference, said the international health organisation had provided essential medicines to some 5.9 million people in the flood-hit areas.

WHO, he said, had also helped set up 63 diarrhoea treatment centres in 41 of the most flood-affected districts.

Four more nutrition stabilizing centres, set up by WHO in Sindh, have treated more than 523 malnourished children, of which 251 were severely malnourished, Dr Gezairy said.

Makhdoom Shabuddin, speaking at the occasion, praised WHO’s activities in Pakistan. “Pakistan’s partnership with WHO is remarkable. And the cooperation and technical support being provided by the organisation is exemplary,” he said.

He said the government was determined to eradicate polio from the country by the end
of 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.