World Health Day Message: PM Gilani sees health data in Pakistan indicating positive indicator

World Health Day Message: PM Gilani sees health data in Pakistan indicating positive indicators

Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Gilani during his message to the nation on World Health Day, said that the health indicators of Pakistan were positive and they were striving to improve them further.

In his message, he said, “World Health Day is observed on April 7 each year to mark the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. The purpose of observing this yearly event is to highlight the challenges facing
the health sector, review our responses and debate strategies to overcome the health hazards.”

He further added, “The day aims to raise awareness among the masses about the dos and don’ts to improve the health conditions at a grass-roots level through enhanced community involvement. It also calls for forming joint collaborations
and employing partnership approach on the part of the governments, private sector, medical fraternity and media to focus on health issues in a holistic manner.

The selection of this year’s theme namely “Good health adds life to years” underscores the importance of staying healthy and the impact of health on aging. The theme conveys the message that if individuals adopt healthy habits
and healthy life-style through conscious efforts, they can slow down the phenomenon of aging and inject productivity to life.

The statistical data on aging in Pakistan indicates positive indicators. At the moment, the senior citizens constitute 4.2% of the total population, which is likely to double by 2025. The average life expectancy of citizens, which
at the moment is almost 66 years is also likely to touch 72 year mark in a decade or so. This national trend is in line with the global phenomenon of declining death rates and increasing life-spans.

However, it may be added at the same time that the old people including both men and women are more risk-prone to diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, rheumatism, pain in the joints, gradual erosion of immunity and cancers
than people in other age groups. The dangers to the health of senior citizens can be significantly reduced by urging them to adopt healthy daily habits such as walks, exercise, simple food-intake, and rest.

Families in particular and society at large can contribute to a large extent to making the senior citizens the productive members of society through greater care and deeper interaction. The presence of elderly people in our familial
context is considered to be a blessing. Hence, it highlights the need to pay more and organized attention to their wellbeing as part of our social and religious obligation.

It also puts an added responsibility on the medical fraternity to particularly focus on the training and orientation of its staff to take care of the elderly. Health is a provincial subject after the 18^th Constitutional
Amendment. It is now upon the provincial governments to formulate integrated health care services with the concurrence of all relevant stakeholders.

On this day, let us pledge to join the global community in its efforts to combat the health hazards with a single-minded agenda.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Apr 7 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry