Daily Times

Vertical program headed by the Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab is a sort of program designed to cater the prevention and treatment of six major diseases that are currently playing with the lives of people of Pakistan. The vertical program consists of Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI), Hepatitis Control Program, AIDS Control Program, Tuberculosis Control Program, Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Disease Program and ICMNCH i.e. National Maternal & Newborn Child Health Program. On the event of AIDS awareness day on 1st of December 2020 an event organized by the Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department has proved to be very fruitful this year as they have gathered the consent of 14 different universities of Pakistan to give their full support in uprooting the causes of these diseases by doing screening tests of all the enrolled students and also giving vaccines where necessary. The number of students enrolled in all these universities exceed one million. This way the reach of the vertical program has been significantly increased.

The major benefit of screening the students of these universities are many, but to mention a few let’s talk first about the number of screening tests that will be easily conducted. That number exceeds a little over one million as the combine strength of all the 14 universities is about one million. The second benefit is that by giving awareness to these one million individuals the health department would be able to deliver awareness to one million families and the friends and relatives of those one million students. So the total reach would easily be more than five million which is a great number considering the limited amount of time it would take to make screening possible as the masses will be available under one roof.

Another benefit is that these students are not some random individuals who come into universities, they are registered students of the universities and they come in on regular basis. So if some students are diagnosed with any of the said diseases it will be very easy to contact them for vaccinations. With the data gathered by screening these one million students the healthcare department can also generate many useful patterns for prevention of these diseases by timely catering to the reason or cause of the disease. They can pinpoint the areas where these diseases are at peak and vaccine those areas specifically to further prevent the spreading of diseases.

These benefits along with others that I am unable to mention here due to limitation of the length of this article have a very broader impact than it seems at first glance. The ripples sent out by the benefits of this program can reach as far as the overall economy of the country. the economy can benefit in two major ways, one is the maximum load taken off of the healthcare system of the country and control of these diseases portraying a positive image of our country internationally hence bringing in more tourists (which is a multi-billion dollar industry in itself) and also bringing in investment from abroad as the country would seem to be stable health wise. These benefits cannot be ignored and must be brought to light so other steps like this one are taken at the government level so that the country can start moving towards betterment and flourish like we want it to.

All this being said I would like to sincerely pay my regards and would like to appreciate the people behind this crucial step. First of all the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan for paying due attention on healthcare system of our country and encouraging officials in power to take such steps. Then Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Sardar Usman Buzdar for making this step a reality and last but not the least Secretary Health Capt. R. Mr. Usman Younis for formulating such a step for betterment of general public of our country. These are a few names that are prominent but we must not forget hundreds of other officials and people who have worked tirelessly day and night to make this dream into reality. If we can do nothing else, the least we can do is appreciate if something good is happening and bring that to light for other to take inspiration and do something which is really in the benefit of general public.