perspective-health - Page 5

The Age Of Consent And The Borders Of Belief

ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 marks a pivotal step toward a safer, progressive Pakistan KARACHI. Child rights organisations and advocates, along with concerned citizens, have warmly welcomed the passage of recent legislation on child marriages, describing it as a landmark step toward protecting the rights and well-being of children. “The passage of the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025…

THE SCREEN-TIME TRAP

It’s a common scenario. A parent wants to do some chores or wants some free time for his or her self and the child may be causing disruptions or being clingy. Finding no other way to distract the child, the parent gives his/her smartphone to the child to keep them…

Prevention is Cheaper

Each year, climate-induced disasters cost Pakistan billions of dollars and push millions…

Glaucoma for Children

A nice year old Hajra visited the paediatric ophthalmology department at our…

Why Polio Endures

Last week, Pakistan’s polio tally for 2025 went up to 30. The latest case was recorded in district Torghar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where over half (19) of this year’s polio cases have come from. While the tally for this year is still much lower than the 74 cases recorded last…

Polio-free Promise

FOR more than three decades, Pakistan has fought poliovirus with collective determination, reducing cases by 99.6 per cent. Despite concerted efforts, poliovirus has survived in two countries, posing persistent risk to the health and lives of vulnerable children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As we commemorate World Polio Day 2025, Pakistan…

Smog Season

AS temperatures begin to drop, smog makes an unwelcome arrival in many parts of the country, particularly Lahore and urban Punjab. This health and climate crisis has been brewing for some years, while the state — nudged on by civil society and experts — has begun to take steps to combat the…

Invisible Childhood

THE world rightly sees child domestic workers as modern slaves, while domestic labour is categorised as informal work, or invisible labour. In July 2022, a qualitative study by the International Labour Organisation revealed that one in every four Pakistani households employs a minor, showing a predominance of girls from 10…

Futures Snatched By Force Of Faith

The concerns regarding forced conversion are not a new phenomenon in our part of the world. Almost a century ago the All India Muslim League chalked out the rules for conversion in this region. The All India Muslim League adopted a resolution in December, 1927 at Calcutta which addressed the…

Deadly Bite

IMAGINE a child happily heading to the park to play ball with friends. A stray dog prowls nearby, foaming at the mouth and ferociously gnawing on a bramble. The canine spots the children and lunges at them. Some run away screaming in terror, while one unlucky child is knocked down…

Polio Mountain

THE world’s battle against polio is stuck on a glass mountain. After 37 years and $22bn, the Independent Monitoring Board has declared that conventional strategies are running out of road. Its latest assessment, The Glass Mountain, places Pakistan centre stage. The country has reported 27 new cases this year — small in absolute…

As Thousands of Children Battle Thalassaemia, Gaps in Screening and Policy Continue to put Families at Risk

Seven-year-old Muhammad Aban, from a poor family and currently admitted to Benazir Children’s Hospital in Mardan (BCHM), longs to play with other children but is too weak due to complications from thalassaemia. Diagnosed when he was just 11 months old, he needs two to three blood transfusions every week to…

Floods and Healthcare

DEVASTATING floods are now an annual emergency in Pakistan. Climate change is hitting hard, manifesting in new weather patterns including cloudbursts. Sudden torrential rainfall, which continues relentlessly, can literally move mountains. This phenomenon was observed in many places in the northern parts of the country. The gushing water sweeps away boulders, trees,…

HPV Vaccine

Pakistan is on the cusp of a major public health breakthrough. From September 15 to 27, the country will launch its first-ever national HPV vaccination campaign – an ambitious yet necessary initiative aimed at protecting millions of girls from cervical cancer, a disease that claims thousands of lives each year…