Pakistan – Double burden of diseases

Abstract

South Asian countries face a double burden of disease (DBD) due to communicable and noncommunicable diseases, Pakistan being one of them. On one end of the spectrum is the challenge of controlling the spread of communicable diseases (CD’s) while on the other end is the increase in the prevalence of NCDs which will place an unavoidable burden on health services; their availability and affordability.2 Unfortunately Pakistan has yet to control the communicable diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, viral hepatitis, cholera, vaccine preventable diseases and other infectious diseases. Moreover, there is a rising trend of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cancers, stroke, mental health problems and accidents and injuries.3 despite number of vertical and horizontal national health programs, Pakistan is having high maternal and neonatal mortality rates, due to the causes like sepsis and hemorrhage which are mostly preventable. Furthermore, in young children, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses are considered as the major killers. The estimated prevalence for various forms of malnutrition in children under 5 years of age is: 31.6% underweight, 10.5% wasting, 45.0% stunting and 4.8% overweight. While half of the women of reproductive age are anemic i.e. 50.4%.3