Infants’ healthcare

Dearth of vaccines required to be administered to new born babies for the prevention of diseases such as Diarrhea, Diphtheria, and Measles in the hospitals of capital city of Peshawar and basic health units in the outskirts has been reported in print media. Parents of infants in the age group of 6-14 weeks could not avail the facility of vaccination and return their homes frustrated and worried.

Although the infant mortality rate continues to drop in Pakistan by the provision of vaccines by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF as none of the governments in the past had given serious consideration to develop the vaccines within in the country, for which biotechnology expertise and technical infrastructure do exist at the National Institute of Health. The discouraging role of Drugs Regulatory Authority (DRAP) and Ministry of National Health Services is flabbergasting. The death rate in 1000 live births was 73 in 2008, which decline to 57 in 2018; however, it is very high. According to UNICEF, Pakistan has the worst infant mortality rate in South Asia. That is why expert say that newly born babies face 50 times more death risk during the first month of their birth. The reason is that investment in healthcare system ranks at the bottom of priorities fixed by the government. Till date every government spends less than one percent of GDP on health that hinders substantial improvement in infant mortality rate.