Diarrhea causes deaths of around 110 children every day in Pakistan whose lives can be saved by using inexpensive pharmaceutical interventions including administration of Zinc along with Oral Rehydrating Solutions (ORS), leading health experts and officials said on Thursday.
They said thousands of lives of children were saved in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan last year when they were given Zinc supplements along with oral rehydrating solutions, saying as per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, Zinc supplementation improves the diarrheal treatment.
Lauding the production of Zinc products at World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified plant of local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo in Pakistan, they said Pakistan could not only save lives of thousands of children by giving them WHO prequalified nutritional supplements but also save precious foreign exchange by buying these products from the local market.
“Production of two Zinc products by the local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo at their World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified plant is a great achievement for the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry. Now instead of importing these products by spending valuable foreign exchange, we can purchase them from our local company and use them to save lives of children, who die due to diarrhea on daily basis”, IftikharShalwani, Federal Secretary Health told a ceremony to celebrate WHO prequalification by local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo.
Addressing the event titled “Importance of Zinc in Human Health and WHO Prequalification”, jointly organized by Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination in collaboration with local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo, Secretary Health IftikharShalwani praised Pakistani pharmaceutical industry for their role in control and treatment of diseases, saying these companies played an important role in management of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
“And now two more Pakistani pharmaceutical products are being manufactured at WHO prequalified plant, for which PharmEvo, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Chief AsimRauf and all officials deserve praise and congratulations”, IftikharShallwani added.
