A report based on disease cases registered in 77 offices of District Health Officers (DHOs) in April 2013
ISLAMABAD, 25th September 2013: Infant mortalities registered a 17% increase as the number of cases went up from 1,834 in March to 2,139 in April 2013. Such cases were more widespread during the monitoring month (37 districts) as compared to the one before (34 districts) says a Free and Fair Election Report released on Wednesday.
Cases of child mortalities also went up from 211 in 12 districts to 230 in 13. However, maternal mortalities went down from 102 cases to 97 in a month.
FAFEN governance monitors who visited offices of 77 District Health Officers (DHOs) reported 2,745,332 disease cases in April. Half of these cases were of Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs). Of the 1,367,535 RTI cases in 75 districts, the most were in Faisalabad (161,957), followed by Gujranwala (64,007) and Kasur (56,470).
Twenty three percent of the total cases were of gastrointestinal infections. Of the 640,181 such cases, three-fifths were of diarrhea and dysentery and the rest were of gastroenteritis. Among skin diseases, only scabies was observed, which made 9% of the total reported diseases. Of the 75 districts reporting it, Faisalabad had the most cases (26,538 out of the total 254,878).
Animal bites made less than 1% of the total cases. Of the 15,618 cases, 965 were of dog bites and 4% of snake bites. Bahawalpur recorded the highest number of these cases (1,519 dog bites and 117 snake bites).
Of the 637 cases of viral diseases, 625 were of hepatitis reported in 19 districts. Layyah with 225 cases was the highest reporting district. The other 12 cases were of suspected AIDS, all of which were in Sargodha.
No case of dengue was registered in April while 458 malaria cases were reported in 14 districts.
There were 297 cases of tuberculosis in eight districts, the highest being in Charsadda (77 cases). Nine cases of tetanus were also reported, all of which were in Karachi.
