Healthy “Naya Pakistan” (Health Journalism)

Seminar in KP discusses media’s role in promoting health 

One third of infant deaths in Pakistan are due to malnutrition and 48 percent households face food shortage, said Peshawar University Teachers Association General Secretary Dr Fazl Nasir during a seminar held in the varsity on Monday. “Pakistan is among the three countries of the world where polio is still endemic and we need to invest in health workers, especially for improving maternal and child health,” she said. The seminar, titled “The role of journalism in promoting evidence-based health policy for reducing child mortality and improving maternal health”, was arranged by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Save the Children foundation and Peshawar University Teachers Association.

The seminar was aimed at creating awareness about Save the Children’s ‘Everyone’ campaign which is about increasing health and nutrition programmes by ensuring an increase in access, quality and coverage of maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition services. Senior journalist Zahir Shah Sherazi discussed the media’s role in promoting health by giving maximum coverage to health news. He revealed different areas of health reporting which were not taken up by the media and said the media should conduct research while working on different health issues. Speaking on the occasion, Save the Children Provincial Manager Adnan Sajid said every year nearly 3 million infants died within the first month of life mostly from preventable causes and more than a million of these babies died on the first day, making the birth day the riskiest day for newborns and mothers everywhere. “The Breast feeding Ordinance 2013 should be adopted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well,” he said. All the speakers emphasised that the media enhance focus on health issues and play its role in promoting health-awareness among the masses. Such seminars were important for the capacity building of health journalists, they said. - See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/08/20/news/national/healthy-naya-pakistan/#sthash.vtV81NjP.dpuf