Pakistan on Tuesday signed an agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to provide free cancer medicines for 8,000 children annually.
The WHO and the health ministry formalised Pakistan’s participation in the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (Global Platform) to “provide quality-assured medicines — free of cost — to children affected by cancer in the country, where over 8,000 new cases are diagnosed annually”, said a WHO press release.
The agreement, signed by Health Minister Mustafa Kamal and WHO Representative in Pakistan Dr Dapeng Luo at a ceremony in Islamabad, will remain in force until Dec 31, 2027 and “may be extended by written agreement of the parties”.
In addition to the provision of medicines, WHO will continue to support Pakistan’s Ministry of Health and provincial authorities with technical guidance, resources, and operational support to fight childhood cancer.
The agreement aims to increase the survival rate of children fighting with cancer from 30 per cent to 60pc by 2030, the WHO statement highlighted.
“Limited access to treatment is one of the main factors behind the low survival rate in the country, compared to a survival rate of 80pc in higher-income countries,” it noted.
In addition to the provision of medicines, WHO will continue to support the health ministry and provincial authorities with technical guidance, resources, and operational support to fight childhood cancer.
“No child affected by cancer should die because of lack of access to treatment, including quality-assured medicines. WHO will work side by side with the Ministry of Health and partners to save lives and leave no child behind, no matter where they live or who they are,” the press release quoted Dr Luo as saying.
On the occasion, Kamal said: “Today is a big day for Pakistan, because through this agreement, we are going to receive medicines to treat children who have cancer. This is the way forward.”
He added: “We are thankful to WHO, the Global Platform, Unicef, and all partners who have made this possible and give our children access to treatment to fight this disease. If we are able to save one life through this collaboration, we are saving mankind.”
Pakistan is the second country in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to join the Global Platform, co-founded in 2021 by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and WHO to provide an uninterrupted supply of certified cancer medicines to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The initiative works in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), that will be responsible for procuring medicines and delivering them to Pakistan, according to the statement.
It is estimated that 400,000 children develop cancer each year. Close to 90pc of them live in LMICs, where survival rates are less than 30pc, meaning seven out of 10 children affected by cancer do not survive, WHO noted.
Minister stresses need to control fertility rate, preventable diseases
Meanwhile, Kamal also stressed the need to control the country’s fertility rate and reduce the spread of preventable diseases.
The fertility rate has declined in Pakistan over the last few decades, from six live births per woman in 1994 to 3.6 births per woman in 2024, according to the United Nations’ World Fertility Report 2024. However, it has stayed stagnant at 3.6 since 2005, becoming a matter of concern for policymakers.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Kamal called for the government and public to work together to achieve targets for a healthy society, saying that it “begins with population, with childbirth”.
The minister claimed that 11,000 mothers died every year due to pregnancy complications, adding: “Imagine it — start counting 11,000 corpses; you won’t be able to.”
However, a WHO statement from April put that figure at 9,800.
“Every day, 675 babies under one month and 27 mothers die from preventable complications in Pakistan, amounting to over 9,800 maternal and 246,300 newborn deaths each year. Pakistan also registers more than 190,000 stillbirths annually,” the statement noted.
Kamal highlighted that religious institutions had even stated in fatwas that in the event of danger to a mother or her child’s care, a break in childbirth was necessary.
He also drew attention to Pakistan’s high fertility rate of 3.6 births per woman, saying that nowhere in the world could people make progress with such a fertility rate.
He pointed out that even countries in the region, such as Bangladesh, Iran and India, had all reduced their fertility rates. “They are making progress. They are able to take care of their people.”
Referring to childbirth, the minister stated that 43pc of children were born “stunted” in the country, with their brains not developing correctly.
“So when you say that our youth is our asset, 43pc of our youth is a liability,” he said.
Speaking on high rates of preventable diseases, Kamal said medical experts reported that 68pc of those in Pakistan were waterborne. “If we start drinking clean water, then 68pc of the hospital rush will end,” he quipped.
The minister expressed discontent that not enough was being done to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases, particularly stressing the need to treat sewage.
He explained that the lack of a separate line for sewage to travel directly to the sea for disposal contributed to diseases, as the sewage would travel to another neighbourhood’s pipeline and mix in with its water.
According to Kamal, sewage flushed by a house in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) could go on to mix with someone else’s drinking water “in some nullah, some river, some stream […] because the water does not get treated when it leaves there”.
“All the way from GB to Karachi, people are drinking other people’s sewage.”
The minister criticised the nation’s “lack of understanding” about sewage treatment being necessary.
Kamal also called attention to the refusal of many families to allow vaccines to be administered, saying that “people are coming to doorsteps to administer vaccines and you are closing the door on them”.
“This is not the sole work of the government,” he said, adding, “This cannot be done by any Pakistani district, provincial or federal government alone.”
He called on the public to “fix” its thinking as a nation and listen to the government’s message. “My worker is going down to administer shots for six, 12 illnesses and being refused with a closed door,” he said.