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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
National public health is a recent innovation in
Pakistan. In
prepartition India, the British provided health care for
government employees but rarely attended to the health
needs of
the population at large, except for establishing a few
major
hospitals, such as Mayo Hospital in Lahore, which has King
Edward
Medical College nearby. Improvements in health care have
been
hampered by scarce resources and are difficult to
coordinate
nationally because health care remains a provincial
responsibility rather than a central government one. Until
the
early 1970s, local governing bodies were in charge of
health
services.
National health planning began with the Second
Five-Year Plan
(1960-65) and continued through the Eighth Five-Year Plan
(1993-
98). Provision of health care for the rural populace has
long
been a stated priority, but efforts to provide such care
continue
to be hampered by administrative problems and difficulties
in
staffing rural clinics. In the early 1970s, a
decentralized
system was developed in which basic health units provided
primary
care for a surrounding population of 6,000 to 10,000
people,
rural health centers offered support and more
comprehensive
services to local units, and both the basic units and the
health
centers could refer patients to larger urban hospitals.
In the early 1990s, the orientation of the country's
medical
system, including medical education, favored the elite.
There has
been a marked boom in private clinics and hospitals since
the
late 1980s and a corresponding, unfortunate deterioration
in
services provided by nationalized hospitals. In 1992 there
was
only one physician for every 2,127 persons, one nurse for
every
6,626 persons, and only one hospital for every 131,274
persons.
There was only one dentist for every 67,757 persons.
Medical schools have come under a great deal of
criticism
from women's groups for discriminating against females. In
some
cities, females seeking admission to medical school have
even
held demonstrations against separate gender quotas. Males
can
often gain admission to medical schools with lower test
scores
than females because the absolute number for males in the
separate quotas is much greater than that for females. The
quota
exists despite the pressing need for more physicians
available to
treat women.
The government has embarked on a major health
initiative with
substantial donor assistance. The initial phase of an
estimated
US$140 million family health project, which would
eventually aid
all four provinces, was approved in July 1991 by the
government
of Pakistan and the World Bank, the latter's first such
project
in Pakistan. The program is aimed at improving maternal
health
care and controlling epidemic diseases in Sindh and the
NorthWest Frontier Province. It will provide help for staff
development, particularly in training female paramedics,
and will
also strengthen the management and organization of
provincial
health departments. The estimated completion date is 1999.
The
second stage of the project will include Punjab and
Balochistan.
In addition to public- and private-sector biomedicine,
there
are indigenous forms of treatment. Unani Tibb
(Arabic for
Greek medicine), also called Islami-Tibb, is
Galenic
medicine resystematized and augmented by Muslim scholars.
Herbal
treatments are used to balance bodily humors.
Practitioners,
hakims, are trained in medical colleges or learn
the skill
from family members who pass it down the generations. Some
manufactured remedies are also available in certain
pharmacies.
Homeopathy, thought by some to be "poor man's Western
medicine,"
is also taught and practiced in Pakistan. Several forms of
religious healing are common too. Prophetic healing is
based
largely on the hadith of the Prophet pertaining to
hygiene
and moral and physical health, and simple treatments are
used,
such as honey, a few herbs, and prayer. Some religious
conservatives argue that reliance on anything but prayer
suggests
lack of faith, while others point out that the Prophet
remarked
that Allah had created medicines in order that humans
should
avail themselves of their benefits. Popular forms of
religious
healing, at least protection from malign influences, are
common
in most of the country. The use of tawiz, amulets
containing Quranic verses, or the intervention of a
pir,
living or dead, is generally relied upon to direct the
healing
force of Allah's blessing to anyone confronted with
uncertainty
or distress.
Data as of April 1994
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