Malaria hits Balochistan after catastrophic floods

Rafiullah Mandokhail

ZHOB: Malaria is a life-threatening disease, affecting half of the world’s population. In Pakistan earlier in 2021, 1.6 million people were tested positive with malaria, 313 out of them died of the disease. Most of them were under five children and pregnant women. Following the catastrophic floods across Balochistan, thousands of malaria cases have been reported in the province.

These mind-blowing figures were shared by the speakers at a seminar organized by Balochistan Rural Support Programme in collaboration with Indus Hospital & Health Network on the eve of World Malaria Day here. Earlier an awareness walk was also organized to mark World Malaria Day. This year, the theme as designated by the World Health Organization is ‘Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement’.

Presiding over the seminar Provincial Manager IHHN Dr Aimal Mandokhail and District Coordinator Malaria Control Programme Ubaid Hariphal said that Indus Hospital & Health Network is working for the eradication of malaria in 21 endemic districts of Balochistan including Zhob. ‘Twenty-six public health centers and forty-four private laboratories have been provided with diagnostic facilities, where patients are being screened, diagnosed and treated free of cost. The health facilities have been provided with anti-malarial medicines and RDT kits,’ they added.

Addressing the seminar Samad Khan Hariphal (Brace Program), Abdul Rasheed Sarwan (Education Department), Dr. Abdul Qayyum Mandokhail (Leishmaniasis Center), Usman Sherani (Malaria Control Programme) and Quttab Khan Afaqi (DPM-BRSP) said that the seminar was aimed at educating and sensitizing people about the gravity of disease. They said in different districts of Balochistan, falciparum and vivax malaria is common. According to last year’s statistics, 110,000 people were screened in which 16,000 positive cases of malaria were reported. But the true number could be far higher.

The officials said that the bite of a mosquito carrying plasmodium parasite causes malaria. They urged the people to adopt precautionary measures to protect themselves from the disease. Deputy Director of Livestock and Dairy Development Dr. Naseebullah Kakar, Dr. Afrasiab Mandokhail (World Health Organization), Zain-ud-Din Mardanzai (World Bank), Pashtoonyar Sherani and Amanullah Kharoti (BISP and Al-Shifa Foundation), Abuzar Mandokhail (IHHN), Saboor Khan (Admin Officer BRSP), Journalist Rafiullah Mandokhail, Allama Naseem Babar, Dawood Khan Shahabzai, Sheikh Habib Mandokhail, Wali Arian (Director Arian Technical Institute), Salahuddin Mandokhail, Qasim Khan Mandokhail (Para medical staff), Nazir Mardanzai (UNICEF), Prince Arslan and Baz Muhammad Nasar attended the seminar.