LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has asked the government to allocate more funds for prevention of diseases in the upcoming budget. According to a statement on Monday, the PMA has expressed concern over “rapidly aggravating situation of malaria in all parts of the country”. “Different reports indicate that the disease in now rising a grave health problem in Pakistan,” the statement said. “In Pakistan, around 0.5 million malaria cases are reported every year. However, given the realisation, malaria has been declared a life-threatening disease and one of the major health challenges of the 21st century,” the statement added. “The major developments in the industrial sector without proper sewerage, unplanned and unsustainable urbanisation and bad sanitary conditions have made the conditions favourable for the spread of the disease.” “Given the situation, we should adopt preventive measures to eradicate malaria. The only prevention for malaria is to completely eliminate mosquitoes from the country. It will also eliminate the other mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, Chikungunya and others.”