HEALTH

Updatedes:
Around 110000 childrens and adolescent died from AIDS related causing 2021, United Nation Children
Funds (Unicef) said

Global funds to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has committed 20m dollarsto pakisatan in
emergency fundingto support health system faced with climate change disaster.

WHO warns from indian cough syrup(13 jan 2023 dawn)

https://www.dawn.com/news/1735776/health-insurance

COVID 19
Spending abroad by Chinese shoppers was a
$250 billion a year market before Covid
Yu Weishi, chairman of Youcare Pharmaceutical
Group, told Reuters his firm boosted output of
its anti-fever drugs five-fold to one million
boxes a day in the past month.
as international experts predict at least 1
million deaths in China this year
UNICEP REPORT:
ISLAMABAD: The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef)
warned on Monday that up to four million
children are still living near contaminated and
stagnant floodwaters, risking their survival and
well-being, more than four months after a
national state of emergency was declared in
Pakistan.

Acute respiratory infections among children, a

leading cause of child mortality worldwide,
have skyrocketed in the flood-stricken areas. In
addition, the number of cases among children
identified as suffering from severe acute
malnutrition in the flood-affected areas
monitored by Unicef nearly doubled between
July and December as compared to 2021, and
estimated 1.5m children are still in need of life-
saving nutrition interventions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-
64258799 covid cases in china touches
900million -study(13 jan 2023)

Unicef’s current appeal of $173.5m to provide

life-saving support to women and children
affected by the floods remains only 37 per cent
funded. “Children living in Pakistan’s flood-
affected areas have been pushed to the brink,”
said the Unicef Representative in Pakistan,
Abdullah Fadil.

“The rains may have ended, but the crisis for

children has not. Nearly 10m girls and boys are
still in need of immediate, life-saving support
and are heading into a bitter winter without
adequate shelter. Severe acute malnutrition,
respiratory and waterborne diseases, coupled
with the cold, are putting millions of young lives
at risk,” he added.

In Jacobabad district, where many families have

little more than mere cloth to cover their
makeshift shelters by stagnant floodwaters,
temperatures have dropped to seven degrees
Celsius at night.

In mountainous and high-altitude areas, which

have also been affected by the floods, snow has
fallen, and temperatures have dropped below
zero degrees Celsius. Unicef and partners have
started providing items such as warm clothing
kits, jackets, blankets and quilts, aiming to
reach nearly 200,000 children, women and
men.

In response to the worsening child survival

crisis, more than 800,000 children have been
screened for malnutrition; 60,000 were
identified as suffering from severely acute
malnutrition — a life-threatening condition
where children are too thin for their height —
and referred for treatment with ready-to-use
therapeutic food (RUTF).

Unicef’s health interventions have reached

nearly 1.5m people with primary healthcare
services so far, and 4.5m children have been
immunised against polio in 16 flood-hit
districts. The UN agency and its partners have
also provided more than one million people
with access to safe drinking water, and one
million with hygiene kits.

In the months ahead, Unicef will continue to

respond to urgent humanitarian needs, while
also restoring and rehabilitating existing health,
water, sanitation and education facilities for
families returning home. “As families begin to
return to their villages, our response has moved
with them,” said Mr Fadil.

“Our mobile health, nutrition and water teams

continue to respond to immediate life-saving
needs, while we help restore and rehabilitate
existing health, water, sanitation, and education
facilities, supporting the government’s efforts in
climate-resilient recovery and reconstruction,
he added.
MORTALITY RATE IN SOUTH ASIA:
ISLAMABAD: South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remained
the two worst regions in terms of child mortality in 2021,
a new UN report has said.

The report released on Tuesday estimated that around

five million children died before the age of five while
another 2.1 million children and youth between five and
24 years lost their lives in 2021.

Children continue to face wildly differentiating chances of

survival based on where they are born, with sub-Saharan
Africa and Southern Asia shouldering the heaviest
burden, the reports show, the report added.

Though sub-Saharan Africa had just 29 per cent of global

live births, the region accounted for 56pc of all under-five
deaths in 2021, and Southern Asia for 26pc of the total
deaths.

Children born in sub-Saharan Africa are subjected to the

highest risk of childhood death in the world — 15 times
higher than the risk for children in Europe and Northern
America.

The report added many of these deaths could have been

prevented with equitable access and high-quality
maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health care.

The report, jointly prepared by the UN Inter-Agency

Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME), said the
global community failed to uphold its promise to its
youngest and most vulnerable members in 2021.

“Behind these numbers are millions of children and

families who are denied their basic right to health,” said
Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition
and Population, World Bank and Director of the Global
Financing Facility.

The global under-five mortality rate fell by 50pc since the

start of the century, while mortality rates in older
children and youth dropped by 36pc and the stillbirth
rate decreased by 35pc.

This can be attributed to more investments in

strengthening primary health systems to benefit women,
children and young people.

However, gains have reduced significantly since 2010 and

54 countries will fall short of meeting the Sustainable
Development Goals target for under-five mortality, the
report pointed out.

If swift action was not taken to improve health services,

almost 59m children and youth will die before 2030, and
nearly 16m babies will be lost to stillbirth, it said.
The report warned that if current trends continue, nearly
19m children, adolescents and youth aged 5–24 years will
die between 2022 and 2030, with more than 70pc of
those deaths projected to take place in South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa.

Nearly 3.8m of these deaths will occur among

adolescents aged 10–19 years and a combined 71pc will
occur in sub-Saharan Africa (9.4m or 50 pc) and Southern
Asia (4m or 21pc).

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2023

Another big problem is stang. Almost 11,000 medical posts and

46,000 nursing ones are unlled. This situation may well worsen in

2023, but no one knows for sure, as the government, reluctant to fork

out for training, does not plan the nhs workforce. eu countries in the

oecd, a club of mostly rich countries, have an average 3.7 doctors per

1,000 people (Austria has 5.4). Britain has 2.9. Empty posts are lled by

painfully expensive locums

https://www.dawn.com/news/1735021/govt-to-launch-mental-health-app-next-month