Prevention is Better than Cure

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” said Benjamin Franklin and this fact holds true till this day. 

Man is prone to making mistakes, which paves way to a chaotic collaboration of efforts to make amendments. Prevention halts or obstructs the danger or evil, from the person before it overpowers him. It makes the person escape from it completely. Cure is a solution for the danger or evil which has already engulfed him. Hence, prevention is better than cure. The situation is very sordid in this part of the world though, for being a third world country we hardly pay heed to the significance of preventive healthcare. The question under consideration is why the root cause of disease is not addressed in our country. Why is it so, that only after the onslaught of disease, extreme measures are carried out for its cure? The outbreak of disease is more often than not unprecedented, due to the dearth of proper research. According to an estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO) around 13 million deaths could be prevented every year by making our environments better. Sadly, in children under the age of five, one third of all disease is caused by the environmental factors such as unsafe water and air pollution. However, with just some effort which revolves around better environmental management, several lives could be saved from diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, and cancer, to name a few. According to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), globally, the number of deaths of children under 5 years of age fell from 12.6 million in 1990 to 6.6 million in 2012. In developing countries, the percentage of underweight children under 5 years old dropped from 25% in 1990 to 15% in 2012. There ought to be well targeted intervention in the form of precautionary procedures whereby not only the general environment, but the public at large should be given awareness regarding the significance of deterrence of maladies. Rigorous intercession is mandatory for a healthier environment. Strategic planning to increase the safety of buildings, promoting safe, careful use and management of toxic substances at home and workplace and better water resource management. There should be an inclusion of awareness drives to instill in the general public the consequences that can arise if the environment that they live in is not looked after properly.

Pakistan has faced serious challenges in the last four years, stemming from a sudden meltdown in the global economy in 2008, along with a sharp rise in oil and food prices earlier that year. At the domestic front, security issues, war on terror and IDPs have put further pressure on our economy.

The 18 global targets and 48 indicators adopted in 2000 have been translated into 16 national targets and 37 indicators keeping in view Pakistan’s specific conditions, priorities, data availability and institutional capacity.
The report covers the period since 2006 in which numerous and far reaching developments have taken place, which have transformed the social, political and economic landscape of Pakistan, all having an impact on the outcomes, achievements and targets of Pakistan’s Millennium Development Goals.

Global attention is centering increasingly around environmental concerns, from global warming and extreme weather to unremitting chemical pollutants that impinge our food supplies, vigor and well-being. These ecological exposures unduly affect the poor and those dwelling in developing countries, and may partially elucidate the persistent social gradients in health that exist within and between nations.

There ought to be a collaborated effort to support environmental epidemiologists so that they play a more active role in promoting the global schema for sustainability, environmental health and impartiality. In addition to this, the agencies working for the betterment of society in general and the environment in particular should broaden their focus in order to include rigorous research on the upstream, larger-scale societal factors that add to unbalanced patterns of exposure and health outcomes. By amplifying the horizons, having a clear vision as to the havocs of environmental maladies we can further work to achieve an enlightened society with a responsible environment.

The importance of prevention needs to be emphasized more than ever in Pakistan. This is because our nation is analogous with a lot of issues as far as health care is concerned. Rising poverty has given birth to all sorts of issues, lack of clean drinking water, pollution, deteriorating food quality and not enough resources for the cure of the epidemics that arise. In such dire circumstances, a nursing care facility has been introduced in Lahore by the name of Fresh Medical & Nursing Facility. FNF is a facility that is working specifically for tending to the needs of terminally or chronically ill patients. In this sense, FNF makes it personalized nursing care a prerequisite.  The preventative aspect is also incorporated at FNF, whereby regardless of a patient’s age or disease education and awareness is instilled in the parents and the patients on ways in which to manage and cope with their illnesses. Furthermore, patients are also provided with personalized diet plans, and motivational guide lines as to how to lead meaningful and meaningful lives.

Hence, for a developing country as Pakistan, preventive health measures are the need of the hour and it’s commendable to see the initiation of projects in Pakistan that work for the betterment of the health sector and environment.

The contribution has been by Ms. Ashba Kamran, who is the CEO of Fresh Nursing Facility, a special concept of care designed to provide comfort and support to patients and their families