Priority diseases
Most common and lethal diseases in Pakistan include:
- Acute respiratory infection (51%): Among the victims of ARI, most vulnerable are children whose immune systems have been weakened by malnutrition. In 1990,National ARI Control Programme was started in order to reduce the mortality concerned with pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. In following three years, death rates among victims under age of five in Islamabad had been reduced to half. In 2006, there were 16,056,000 reported cases of ARI, out of which 25.6% were children under age of five.
- Viral hepatitis (7.5%): Viral Hepatitis, particularly that caused by types B and C are major epidemics in Pakistan with nearly 12 million individuals infected with either of the virus. The main cause remains massive overuse of therapeutic injections and reuse of syringes during these injections in the private sector healthcare.
- Malaria (16%): It is a problem faced by the lower-class people in Pakistan. The unsanitary conditions and stagnant water bodies in the rural areas and city slums provide excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Use of nets and mosquito repellents is becoming more common. A programme initiated by the government aims to bring down malarial incidence below 0.01% by the year 2011. In Pakistan, malarial incidence reaches its peak in September. 1000 million people have died from Malaria since Pakistan came into being till December 2012. In 2006, there were around 4,390,000 new reported cases of fever.
- Diarrhea (15%): There were around 4,500,000 reported cases in 2006, 14% of which were children under the age of five.
- Dysentery (8%) and Scabies (7%)
- Others: goitre, hepatitis and tuberculosis
Infectious diseases
Controllable diseases
- Cholera: As of 2006, there were a total of 4,610 cases of suspected cholera. However, the floods of 2010 suggested that cholera transmission may be more prevalent than previously understood. Furthermore, research from the Aga Khan University suggests that cholera may account for a quarter of all childhood diarrhea in some parts of rural Sindh.
- Dengue fever: An outbreak of dengue fever occurred in October 2006 in Pakistan. Several deaths occurred due to misdiagnosis, late treatment and lack of awareness in the local population. But overall, steps were taken to kill vectors for the fever and the disease was controlled later, with minimal casualties.
- Measles: As of 2008, there were a total of 441 reported cases of measles in Pakistan.
- Meningococcal meningitis: As of 2006, there were a total of 724 suspected cases of Meningococcal meningitis.
Poliomyelitis
Main article: Poliomyelitis in Pakistan
Pakistan is one of the few countries in which poliomyelitis has not been eradicated. As of 2008, there were a total of 89 reported cases of polio in Pakistan.[4] Polio cases may be on an increase. The year 2010 saw an increase in the number of cases as well as identification of polio from new locations. Experts from the national program and the WHO felt that the new cases identified from southern Punjab and northern Sindh may have resulted from importation of infections from other locations in Pakistan. Locations in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remain hosts for year-round persistence of infection and environmental sampling by the national program, and WHO suggests that polio remains endemic in many other parts of the country.
HIV/AIDS
Main article: HIV/AIDS in Pakistan
The AIDS epidemic is well established and may even be expanding in Pakistan. Risk factors are high rates of commercial sex and non-marital sex, high levels of therapeutic injections (often with non-sterile equipment), and low use of condoms The former National AIDS Control Programme (it was devolved with the Health Ministry) and the UNAIDS state that there are an estimated 97,000 HIV positive individuals in Pakistan. However, these figures are based on dated opinions and inaccurate assumptions; and are inconsistent with available national surveillance data which suggest that the overall number may closer to 40,000
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