Keeping tuberculosis in check
DAWN: According to a World Health Organization report, Pakistan ranks among the five nations that account for more than 50 per cent of tuberculosis cases worldwide. Each year, 350,000 new cases of tuberculosis are added to the already high incidence of the disease in Pakistan where the resurgence of tuberculosis underlines the official apathy towards this and other major health problems. Moreover, the emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacterial strains has meant that the standard medication used to cure this highly infectious disease has lost much of its efficacy. The situation has been aggravated by negligence on part of both doctors and patients. To keep TB in check, WHO has introduced a health strategy known as DOTS (Direct Observation Treatment Short-course). Under DOTS, health personnel are responsible for overseeing the daily intake of prescribed drugs by TB sufferers for the entire length of the course. Unfortunately, in Pakistan only two per cent ofTB patients take advantage of this scheme although the overall rate of success of DOTS is believed to be quite high. There are also less expensive steps that can be taken to ensure that the rising incidence of TB in the country is brought under control. More sputum-testing facilities must be made available on a wide scale to facilitate early detection of the disease. BCG vaccination, which may not be effective against the more virulent strains of TB, must nevertheless form part of a national health campaign to protect people against tuberculosis.
Arrest the slipping shipping sector
NATION: The Chairman, All Pakistan Shipping Association, has called upon the government to grant `the right of first refusal’ in carrying cargo to Pakistan flag carriers, as one of the measures designed to lift the merchant shipping of the country from the progressively deteriorating state into which it has been lying for quite some time. His contention that there is a great potential for the development ofPakistan merchant shipping appears absolutely valid when we note that as against a sum of $1.59 million paid to foreign freighters in 1974 for the transportation of goods from and to Karachi, the current bill under this head totals $1.6 billion, a staggering increase of a thousand times. But it is highly depressing to observe that the ships flying the Pakistan flag could only command a tiny share of 6 per cent of the country’s international trade. Instead of registering growth with the increase in the volume of trade, national, regional and international, the country’s merchant shipping has markedly shrunk. In 1970 Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) used to be a flourishing organization owning an impressive fleet of 72 ships and its shares priced at four times their original face value and as we now encounter its diminished flotilla of mere 15 ships (averaging 18 years of age as against ships of lesser age which were being operated in the past).
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