Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
New Year brings smile
New Year on January 1 is celebrated throughout the world. It is celebrated just like any other festival. It brings happiness on the faces of millions of people across the world. New Year is celebrated by kids, teenagers, elders as well as old people.
New Year is the time for people to leave their sad and bad experiences behind and wish for their own and their beloved one’s happiness, good health and fortune in the coming year.
New Year is a time to celebrate the start of something new. It is a time to make new promises — some to be broken and some to be kept. It is also a time to look ahead and try to change things for the better. It is also a time to look behind and see what we may have done wrong, and how to change it for the better. It is also an occasion to start new friendships and request for forgiveness from your enemies.
New Year is a joyous time of the year because we feel like we get to start all over again. On New Year’s Day, people are happy, laughing, giggling and sharing about events of the past year and those before. To me, New Year is a day one needs to wake up early in the morning and see the sun rise. It is a day to pray to God and congratulate Mother Earth for completing one revolution. It is a day to ask for the earth’s blessings to be grounded and simple like her as an earthling.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis is zoonotic disease which is caused by intracellular parasite, T. gondii. It spreads due to cats. The Centre of Disease Control reported that the 6m people in America are affected due to this disease. Mostly people don’t show any signs and symptoms of this disease due to having high level of immunity but the people having low level of immunity show the signs and symptoms of this disease. T. gondii is a zoonotic parasite that causes infection in humans and in all warm-blooded animals. Human usually gets infection of T. gondii through various ways like eating different food items such as uncooked/raw meat, contaminated vegetables, handling of the soil/meat without precautionary measures, transfusion of blood, transplantation of organs, congenital, etc.
Toxoplasmosis is going to become health hazard round the world, because it infects 30-50% of humans worldwide. Though, T. gondii causes infection in pregnant women and small ruminants and leads to fetal developmental disorders and abortion but it also stances a high risk in individuals who are immune-compromised and indulge in different health issues. When any warm-blooded animals ingest the toxoplasma oocysts, the asexual life cycle begins in the animal. The vertical transmission of T. gondii in humans occurs and leads to different complications like still birth or abortion. Humans suffer with congenital abnormalities due to toxoplasmosis like microcephaly, hydrocephaly, chorioretinitis, blindness, cerebral calcification, epilepsy, blindness, and mental infection.
In Pakistan, overall prevalence rate of T. gondii infection in humans is 12% to 28%. Whereas the prevalence of toxoplasmosis is higher in the pregnant women in Punjab 63%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 38%, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 48%. Subsequently, the overall seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis is higher in humans (65% to 71%) than rats (58.57%), goats (52%), dogs (28.43%), cats (26.43%), cattle (25%) and sheep (24%).
SARFRAZ-UR-RAHMAN
Lahore
Covid-19: A tool to hide incompetency
The prosperity of any country depends on its political and economic stability, especially in this contemporary world. The world’s largest economies have never compromised on these two areas. But during the covid-19 outbreak, almost all countries of the world have faced catastrophic economic crisis, especially developing countries, Pakistan in particular. In the economic context, Pakistan has witnessed bleak past and passing through a murky present. Currently, Pakistan is wallowing in grim economic uncertainty that perhaps it ever has faced. But the question is: Who is to be blamed? Is this all due to covid-19?
Are the previous governments responsible for these worst crisis? Or can it be attributed to the present government? However, it will be quite wrong to blame covid-19 and previous governments for this financial meltdown of Pakistan. Because, Pakistan has observed record increase in GDP growth rate (5.5%) for fiscal year 2017-18. Contrarily, the current gruesome economic situation can be attributed to the bad governance, failure of government and folly decisions made by its economic managers. The federal budget for the fiscal year (2020-21) is the glaring example in this context.
Even knowing this, Pakistan is an agricultural country, only (1.78%) of the total budget was allocated for agriculture sector that resulted in shifting of Pakistan from wheat exporter to importer. The Chief Executive of the state rather than of assuring reforms, are still praising this inept team of economic managers. It is imperative to take immediate and revolutionary measures and PM should re-evaluate the governance system of the government and performance of economic team and replace them with an apt, proficient and experienced team whose focus must be the state of Pakistan and its 210 million masses.
ENGR ALI HAIDER
Lahore
