PMA terms 2021 unfortunate year for Pakistan due to pandemic of COVID-19 

KARACHI: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) considers 2021 as an unfortunate year for Pakistan and the whole world due to the COVID-19.  

Pakistan went through so many economic and political conundrums and increasing health issues that had raised the burden of diseases more. However, PMA had always offered recommendations and placed a charter of demands for the government to improve the healthcare system in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the state of affairs showed that the voice of PMA always falls on deaf ears. Nothing had been changed in the health sector during the year 2021. Instead of any improvement, things had further bad. 
 
Since the end of 2019, the whole world, including Pakistan, have faced the pandemic COVID-19. Pakistan witnessed the first case in February 2020, and the first case of COVID-19 was detected on 26th February 2020. During 2021 Covid-19 had the world widely affected, 203,739,187 human beings as compared to 83,178,070 in 2020 and deaths reported during 2021 are 5,446,877 as compared to 1,814,649 deaths in 2020.  
 
 Now along with many other states of the world, we had been facing the 5th wave of COVID–19 in the form of Omicron. The tally of the confirmed cases for the year 2021 in Pakistan had reached 815,661, which were 479,715 in 2020. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 reported in 2021 has reached 18,822 as compared to the 10,105 deaths reported in 2020. 

This comparison proved that nobody acted upon our advice despite our regular warnings. Even the public had never followed the preventive measures seriously, and the government also seems to be failed in implementing SOPs. The Omicron is proving to be more transmissible, so we all have to be very careful to avoid any untoward situation.  
 
The increasing burden of COVID-19 proved to be more fatal for doctors than other people. By 2021, 154 doctors and 32 Paramedics would have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in Pakistan. The government remained careless about the welfare of the families of the deceased healthcare professionals. They announced Shuhda Package for these households but never implemented it. The government even ignored doctors' services while conferring civil awards of 2021, which caused desperation in the medical fraternity.    
 
In 2021, the government continued to raise the prices of medicine, making it difficult for poor people to get treatment for their diseases. Due to this price hike, medicine had gone out of the reach of the poor people of the country, and even the middle class of our society feels burdened. Unfortunately, the present government had recently increased drug prices twice during its tenure. In such conditions, when health facilities are scarce at public hospitals, this increment of medicine prices adds to the people's misery.  
 
Fifteen million people are affected with hepatitis B and C in Pakistan. Thousands of new patients are added every year due to a lack of preventive measures, detection and treatment resources, as well as ineptly screened blood transfusion, inadequately sterilised invasive health devices and usage of unsafe injections. Hepatitis B and C are several times more lethal than COVID-19 infection and result in around 300 to 325 fatalities daily in Pakistan. PMA believes the primary reason for the amplifying number of hepatitis C cases in Pakistan is the presence of a large number of quack doctors.  
 
It is neither militancy nor natural disasters but the unavailability of safe drinking water, which engenders the highest number of mortalities in Pakistan. Untreated industrial waste, unsafe sewage systems, agriculture run-off and unplanned urbanisation, had downgraded water quality over the years, especially in the developed areas, depriving almost two-thirds of over 200 million Pakistanis of potable water. According to the United Nations, consuming contaminated water, which leads to several waterborne diseases, contributes to 40 per cent of deaths nationwide every year.  

In Pakistan, it is estimated that 30 per cent of all diseases and 40 per cent of all deaths are due to unsafe water usage. Diarrhoea, a waterborne disease, is currently reported as the leading cause of mortality in infants and children in Pakistan. At the same time, every fifth citizen suffers from illness and disease caused by polluted water. The outbreak of XDR-Typhoid cases in Karachi and other parts of Sindh reached hundreds. It is a severe waterborne infection caused by Salmonella Typhi's bacterium that spreads through contaminated food and water. This is because of the excessive use of antibiotics, causing resistance to typhoid disease.  
 
The number of HIV/AIDS patients in Pakistan currently stands approximately at 203,000. The ratio of the spread of HIV/AIDS cases in Pakistan is at 57 per cent, similar to the Philippines, which is very alarming. Out of many estimated positive instances, only 25,000 cases are registered. This demonstrates our poor performance. There is a dire need to enhance testing capacity to check HIV/AIDS patients. HIV and Hepatitis B and C are primarily spread through the Reuse of injection syringes, unsafe blood transfusion, and mishandling of healthcare waste are the reasons behind the spread of this disease. These reasons are unrestrained even today.  
 
Different researches and studies have revealed that most of the cancer cases in Pakistan (around 60 per cent) were diagnosed in females as compared to males. The most common type of cancer among women is breast cancer, followed by oral and then oesophagal cancer, while in men, it is oral cancer. Research indicated that cancer, often a hereditary malady, is also linked to environmental factors and poor dietary habits. In the case of oral cancer, that affects those who commonly consume tobacco products, paan and betel nut and answer. The intensifying incidence of cancer in Pakistan has made it the second leading cause of death; around 148,000 new cancer or tumour cases are reported in Pakistan every year.