Urban and rural medical systems in Pakistan

Abstract

Available medical systems and forms of treatment in Pakistan range from traditional medicine to religious healers, homeopathic dispensaries, aryuvedic infirmaries, tibbi medical establishments, modern hospitals and specialized clinics. Traditional medicine and religious healers are more common in the rural areas, while more modern forms of treatment are characteristic of urban areas.

Modern hospitals and clinics offer the broadest range of diagnostic and treatment techniques in a wide range of specialities. Homeopathy is practiced either as a “hobby” without charges or as a service with minor charges. This system is based on the doctrine of similic similibus curante, which implies that disease can be cured by drugs which produce the same pathological effects symptomatic of a disease in a healthy person. The aryuvedic system is so old that Sanskrit is used in prescriptions. Most practitioners of Aryuvedic medicine, known as Vaids, either left Pakistan after 1947 or have adopted other professions. The tibbi, or unani system of medicine has been practiced since the early Greek period, with extensions developed by Persians, Arabs, and Mughals, and is now a part of the Muslim culture in Pakistan.

This paper is an attempt to examine the medical geography of these varied forms of treatment in Pakistan. Sind Province, situated at the southern extremity of Pakistan on the mouth of the Indus, has been selected as an area for some comparisons.