Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarrar urged doctors, professional and all stakeholders to work together and help improve the health of children and mothers in Pakistan by playing their part wherever they are and in whatever they do. She added that the government is fully committed to minimising the child and maternal mortality rate in the country.
“I support and endorse all points raise by professional experts and appreciate the recommendations made during [the] conference,” she said while addressing the Women and Child Health Conference organised by Shaheed Zulifqar Ali Bhutto Medical University at a local hotel on Saturday.
She said that the government continues to support the provincial government in taking services to the mother and child. The federal government has ensured an uninterrupted supply of vaccines for over 6 million children where they are protected against nine vaccine preventable diseases, whereas vaccines are also being provided for over 6 million pregnant mothers to protect them against tetanus.
She said that polio eradication in high-risk areas has already begun, and the government has already started introducing the next phase whereby injectable polio vaccines are administered. This form of vaccine is presently being used against the polio emergency and will soon be included in routine immunisation programs.
She said that the provinces would have to strengthen their EPI by reactivating non-functional EPI centres. This should be the first step besides equipping vaccinators with the necessary resources to improve outreach to communities.
The federal government in the recent past had helped facilitate the development of the CYMP. This multi-year planning was done jointly by the federal government, the provinces and partner agencies to strengthen the delivery of routine immunization services to the mother and child.
The minister said that in Pakistan one of 14 children die before reaching the age of one, and 60,000 babies die within the first day of their life. Pakistan also has the highest number of stillborn babies in the region i.e. 1 in every 23.
Despite being the only country in South Asia to have a National Breastfeeding Policy, Pakistan has the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate at 37.7 per cent, and the highest bottle-feeding rate at 40 per cent, according to the last PDHS survey. She said that about 50 per cent of births take place at home, primarily with the help of unskilled birth attendants while 30 thousands women die from pregnancy related causes every year.
