“Science can identify solutions to pressing public health problems, but only politics can turn most of those solutions into reality.” — Thomas R. Oliver

When problems as well as their solutions are known, and yet people continue to suffer, then we have a bigger problem of a different kind. Unless this bigger problem is tackled, even advanced knowledge about definitive solutions will never be enough to alleviate human suffering.

Think about the two sentences above and look around you. Try to understand any major public health problem in Pakistan. You will soon reach the conclusion that the problem is clear in terms of its etiology, pathology, epidemiology, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. If at all, there may be minor knowledge gaps, but too insignificant to hamper the implementation of proven interventions based on science and ample evidence. And yet, you would start wondering why these solutions are not being implemented here. This phenomenon, however obvious it sounds, is the problem to focus on if we are genuinely interested in resolving killer problems.

Let’s dissect two public health problems to qualify the above argument.

Pakistan’s last National Nutrition Survey (NNS) in 2018 revealed that 43 per cent of women of reproductive age and 57.4pc of adolescent girls (10-19 years) in the country were suffering from iron deficiency anaemia, ie, almost every second female. This is a national average hiding extreme differences between urban and rural and rich and poor women. Let us focus on adolescent girls as they are the future.

Anaemia in females is noted when haemoglobin........

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