KARACHI: Noted healthcare expert and leading neurophysician of the country, Dr Fowzia Siddiqui has said the healthcare delivery in Pakistan could not be improved until rapid advancement in public sector, adding our government hospitals are ill-equipped to tackle the threat of the seasonal flu that already looms large Expressing concern on growing cases of the seasonal flu in different parts of the country. She said the healthcare in government sector is going constantly down. As worldwide medical advances in diagnostics and therapeutics we in Pakistan still rely on trial and error depending on the experience of the treating physician. With changing weather and climate change new viruses and mutated old viruses have become endemic to Pakistan, she said from simple flu to gangue and chikungunya to Ebola and West Nile it is difficult to make the diagnosis and prognosis, without testing the viral cultures. Dr Fowzia said the viral testing is now very important as there are antiviral medicines specific to treat some of these lethal infections but viral serology is very expensive in the private sector and government public sector labs lack virology screening. Published in Daily Times, January 11th 2018.