Daily Times

Sir: Fungal infections are becoming a growing public health concern in Pakistan. The Pakistani public is vulnerable to 20 types of fungal infections, which are caused by more than 60 species. This has been reported by the country’s most reputable healthcare institutions.

Common fungal infections affecting the skin are now the leading cause of patients visiting dermatology clinics and hospitals. Despite the prevalence of such illness and the fact that 3.2 million Pakistanis are living with infections such as keratitis which can cause loss of vision, and candida auris which can be potentially fatal, there is no specific national policy regarding fungal diseases. Fungal disease is an area almost forgotten by public health professionals and policy makers since treatment options for these diseases are already limited. Poor availability of medicines are also leading to delays in treatment. In those cases where medicines are available, the prohibitive cost of using second line drugs can amount to around 13000 per day.

Every year these infections claim 1.6 million lives in the world which is higher than the death toll of malaria. Many of diagnostic tests that do exist are not available in developing countries and well established anti fungal drugs that would cure diseases are not reaching people that need them.

It is my request to the health professionals and policy makers to work for treatment of fungal diseases and try to make the medicines cheap and readily available.

BAKHTAWAR RAHIM

Turbat

Published in Daily Times, December 7^th 2017.