Science and Technology Minister Fawad Hussain Chaudhry said in tweet that Pakistan is one of the few countries which have the capability to manufacture ventilators; the first batch will be delivered to NDMA next week. He said that when first Covid-19 case was reported on February 26, the country could not produce this complicated machine and other required medical equipment. But within few months capability was attained not only to meet domestic needs of ventilators but to export the sophisticated machine to other countries. It is worth appreciation that the local expertise of scientists, engineers and technicians has been applied to achieve self-reliance in the production ventilators, masks N-95 and protective clothing for doctors and paramedics. However, a famous saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure.” The high rate of spike in Covid-19 cases can be looked in the context of expression of disdain by the federal government over the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) call for intermittent lockdowns with interval of relaxations. The attitude of rejection to the WHO warning will bring disaster of unmanageable proportion. The stance of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr.Zafar Mirza that WHO guidelines are not binding on Pakistan is reflective of his ignorance of Alma-Ata Declaration of September 12, 1978, which was adopted in the international conference on Public Health held under the auspices of the WHO. Pakistan is signatory to that declaration. There is dire need of increasing spending on healthcare in proportion of GDP for which a minimum bench mark has been set in that declaration. From among the developing countries, Malaysia has achieved the level of healthcare by the year 2000 as set in clause-V of Alma-Ata Declaration by spending 4 percent of its GDP. On the contrary, UNDP report tells that Pakistan spends 0.5 percent of its GDP on healthcare services. An attempt had been made by Pakistan Doctors Association in 1988 to sensitise the leadership of political parties to prioritise all tiers of healthcare in their Parties’ manifestos, while taking into account the track record of abandoning improvement and of health services by elected governments. It was only Benazir Bhutto first government that had done interaction with medical fraternity to discuss the proposal. Will the leaders of all political parties make efforts to honor Pakistan’s commitment under Alma-Ata Declaration?
