Time to take action was yesterday, but it’s still not too late
Country’s largest province, population wise, the Punjab, has seen more than its share of diseases. It was in the news for killing innocent people after they took a cough syrup that was mixed with a deadly formula, before that there was dengue, and then there were incidents of cardiac problems. And most recently, it is measles, a disease that has been completely wiped out in developed countries and which is mostly controlled in developing countries, that has taken the shape of an epidemic, mostly because of a lack of standard precautions by the relevant authorities and lack of medicine.
The outbreak of measles has caused the life of over 60 children so far with many more having been, or being, admitted to the hospital. While the innocent children keep becoming victims of a disease that should have had not been there in the first place, the relevant authorities are bickering over who is responsible. Under the 18th amendment to the constitution, health minister was dissolved to the provinces, but as the process has not yet been completed and with a lack of provincial setup to handle its tasks, they are shifting the blame over to each other. The Pakistan Paediatric Association’s Punjab chapter has held the federal government responsible for the shortage of anti-measles vaccine which led to the outbreak of the disease in most parts of the country. However, the federal government’s response is a pet one: it is the provinces who are responsible for arranging vaccines and other such medicine from international donor agencies and suppliers. Technically it would be good to have one single authority which is tasked with handling this kind of stuff, but before that can be done, if it ever becomes possible, authorities in provinces and at the centre should stop the blame game and work together in controlling the epidemic before it can cause an even widespread outbreak.
However, one cannot overlook the failure of the former PML-N government in Punjab in securing and providing anti-measles vaccines right when the disease has struck in Sindh. Common sense says it was only a matter of time that the disease spread out to other parts of the country; failure to take proper measures was the responsibility of the last government. Managing such outbreaks is best handled at the highest and strictest level possible in health care domain. Taking precautionary measures, making sure of the availability of vaccines and establishing quarantine areas in hospitals are but a few of the steps that are a standard procedure to follow. However, seeing nothing of the sort being practised by the provincial government is regretful, and might lead to an even bigger problem. Time to take action was yesterday, but it’s still not too late.
