Abstract
Policymakers in Pakistan continue to face challenges in reducing mortality in children under the age of five. Leading causes of death in this age category—(1) neonatal tetanus and severe infection, (2) pneumonia, (3) diarrheal disease, (4) measles, (5) injury, and (6) malaria—have been generally attributed to social, economic, and environmental factors. These include poverty, malnutrition/undernutrition, poor hygiene, unsafe water and sanitation. The nation has a legacy of commitments to achieving public health goals and demonstrated their desire to improve conditions by working towards the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) reducing the child mortality rate by approximately 42% by 2015. However, the dismal progress towards addressing child mortality and morbidity in Pakistan can be attributed to the current downstream approach. Therefore, an upstream preventive approach, considering the root causes of child injuries and death, is recommended. This chapter provides a snapshot of the nation’s current health policy, recent history and encounters with natural disasters, current healthcare funding, and health profile with an emphasis on children under the age of five. The chapter puts forth policy recommendations grounded in the concept of upstream approaches in health policy that encompass social, economic, environmental, and structural factors that must be addressed to achieve a sustainable solution to child mortality in the country.
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Glossary
- Biomass
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Animal or plant based material such as wood and coal used as fuel
- Neonatal
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The first 4 weeks of life after birth
- Social determinants of health
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Conditions in which people are born, grow, live, and work; examples include economic status, environmental quality, access to healthy food and clean water, and access to green spaces.
- Three-tier health system of Pakistan
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Pakistan’s health system is three-tiered with management of responsibilities divided between federal, provincial, and district governments.
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Panwhar, S., Fiedler, B.A. (2018). Upstream Policy Recommendations for Pakistan’s Child Mortality Problem. In: Fiedler, B. (eds) Translating National Policy to Improve Environmental Conditions Impacting Public Health Through Community Planning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75361-4_11
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