Pakistani families spend more than $888 million, or Rs248 billion, a year on formula milk, while an estimated 33,700 children die annually for want of breastfeeding, senior paediatricians told a national conference. The figures were presented at the 28th biennial conference of the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) in Islamabad, where specialists reviewed child survival, infectious disease, cardiology, environmental health and adolescent care.
Khalid Shafi of the Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN) said non-breastfed infants under six months face a 15-fold higher risk of death than exclusively breastfed ones, mostly from diarrhoea and pneumonia. Low breastfeeding costs the economy about $2.8 billion annually, he added.
Exclusive breastfeeding stands at 48.4 percent nationally, while under-five mortality is 58 per 1,000 live births. Shafi blamed aggressive marketing, including mommy influencers, and lingering industry inducements to health workers, such as sponsored symposia, gifts and foreign trips.
He said formula manufacturers had challenged Sindh's 2023 law in the high court, lost and were now in the Supreme Court. He urged the PPA to enforce its boycott of commercial sponsorship, and called for fines, recalls and nationwide harmonised laws.
Masood Sadiq of the University of Child Health Sciences, Lahore, said heart failure is commonest in the first three months of life and often missed. In Pakistan, it stems largely from advanced congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, myocarditis and severe anaemia, which affects 57 per cent of under-fives.
Hepatomegaly, feeding difficulty and fast breathing should prompt early referral, he said, noting that ECMO support is hardly available in the country. Ejaz Khan of Shifa International Hospital warned that extensively drug-resistant typhoid had risen from 28.2 percent of isolates in 2017 to 64 percent in 2019.
He said blood culture, not Widal or Typhidot tests, should guide treatment, and azithromycin must be protected. Pakistan was first to introduce typhoid conjugate vaccine in routine immunisation in 2019, but two-year impact was 48.9% in Sindh and 66.2% in Punjab, with protection waning.
He suggested considering a booster at age five alongside clean water and sanitation. Aisha Mehnaz said Pakistan ranked the worst among 143 countries for air quality, with fine particulates over 13 times WHO guidelines.
About 70,000 children die of pneumonia annually, and asthma affects up to 20pc of children. She called for curbs on vehicular and industrial emissions, crop and garbage burning and mass transit, while new leadership was also elected at the conclusion of the event.