‘Strategy being evolved to control hepatitis’

LAHORE

Adviser to chief minister, on health Kh Salman Rafique has said that an effective and comprehensive strategy is being evolved to control hepatitis in Punjab.

He said that on the instruction of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab government would extend all-out cooperation to Pakistan Kidney & Liver Institute (PKLI) for conducting random survey regarding hepatitis prevalence in Punjab.

He said this while talking to a Pakistani origin American medical expert Dr Abdul Nadir, according to a handout issued here on Friday. Prof Saeed Akhtar said that highly qualified Pakistani doctors residing in America and UK had given their consent to serve in PKLI with a national and humanitarian spirit. He informed that data bank of hepatitis patients would be prepared, for this purpose PKLI would conduct a random survey of 30,000 people.

Secretary Health Najam Ahmed Shah said the government was ready to allocate maximum resources to control hepatitis. He said that under-construction PKLI would be a state-of-the-art research institute of international standard. He said that PKLI would be a mother institute and after that plan would be made for setting up such institutes in other parts of the province.

Dengue season: Adviser to chief minister, on health Kh Salman Rafique has said due to stability of temperature dengue season can prolong up to December. He directed all the government departments to continue their vigorous dengue surveillance activities. He directed that quality assessment of outdoor and indoor dengue surveillance activities also be carried out in the meetings of Town Emergency Response Committees.

He stated this while presiding over a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Dengue in the S&GAD Committee Room at Civil Secretariat on Friday, according to a handout issued here. Besides secretaries of government departments, senior officers, public health experts, clinicians and Lahore DCO Capt (R) Muhammad Usman were present in the meeting. The DCOs and EDOs Health of other districts participated in the meeting through a video link.

Additional Director General Health Dengue Control Dr Fayyaz Butt briefed about the dengue surveillance and vector surveillance activities across the province especially in sensitive districts. He said that during current year 177 confirmed dengue patients had been reported in Lahore.