Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said adopt-ing preventive measures could help people avoiding or minimizing intensity of diseases, and improving the overall health condition of the population of the country.
Health and education are the two basic sectors which needed to be put on top priority because nations always build on these two are-as, he said while addressing the “Med-Health Expo 2023 and Summit” here.
The president said the people specially those with limited re-sources could easily avoid the chronic diseases such as breast can-cer, hepatitis, and communicable diseases by adopting preventive measures.
With regard to deteriorating health sector in the country, the presi-dent highlighted that lack of decision-making, avoidance of merit and corruption in the past were the main reason behind limited health facilities in the country.
The health sector exhibition was organized by Rawalpindi Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) aimed at information ex-change, learning, and cooperation opportunities for health profes-sionals.
The two-day event would showcase the latest research and devel-opments in various medical fields through a series of sessions.
President Alvi stressed universities and academia to promote re-search in the health sector that would bring tremendous improve-ment in human health.
He urged the medical professionals to move along with the world that was doing advance research on human DNA to predict the disease in people.
He also called upon the industrialists to produce affordable medi-cal devices to ensure access of people especially from all walks of society to the quality medical facilities.
President Alvi said the industrialists and the exporters should ex-plore big potential markets such as Africa to increase their exports of pharmaceutical and surgical instruments.
He informed that some 9 million pregnancies occurred annually in the country out of which 50% were unwanted which could easily be avoided by providing contraceptive facilities to the people.
Similarly he said doctors and hospitals should also use the latest technology to provide online healthcare facilities to save resources of both patients and the hospitals. This would also help reaching out to the maximum number of people, he added.
The president also stressed the need to provide first aid and cardi-opulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training to common people from school levels to save lives of the people in emergencies.
President RCCI Saqib Rafiq said President Dr Arif Alvi and First Lady Samina Alvi played vital role in creating awareness about different diseases especially breast cancer in the country.
He said Pakistan’s health sector was facing challenges which needed to be addressed. He said due to lack of awareness and health facilities, 10% of total population was suffering from hepa-titis and 34% from stress. Similarly, he said maternal mortality was very high in the country.
Chairman of the event Usman Shoukat called upon the govern-ment to focus on health sector and take special measures for uplift of the sector.
Group Leader RCCI Sohail Altaf maintained that the government should provide subsidized land and equipments to the private sec-tor to ensure affordable healthcare facilities to the masses.
On the occasion, President Alvi also awarded shields to pharma-ceutical companies, private hospitals, and medical laboratories for their services in health sector.
On the other hand, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr Asad Majeed Khan on Wednesday paid a farewell call on President Dr Arif Alvi here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The president congratulated Dr Asad Majeed Khan on the successful completion of his term as the 31st foreign secre-tary.
He appreciated the services of the outgoing foreign secre-tary for promoting Pakistan’s stance on different matters.
President Alvi also lauded the foreign secretary’s profession-al competence and initiatives on the diplomatic fronts.
He also expressed good wishes for Dr Asad Majeed Khan for his post-retirement life.
