Draft for legislation sent to dept: minister

Pre-marriage thalassaemia test

LAHORE

Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Kh Salman Rafiq has said that promotion of health education and pre-marriage mandatory thalassemia test is inevitable for effective control of thalassemia for which legislation is essential.

He said that Health Department had sent draft law to the Law Department and, after developing consensus on the draft law, legislation process would be started accordingly. He said that many countries like Greece, Maldives, Cyprus, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran either had achieved zero level in thalassemia cases or controlled it up to 90 percent through legislation.

Kh Salman Rafiq directed that  Punjab Thalassemia Prevention and Control Programme (PTPC) should forward recommendations along with the estimates about the future requirements for DNA lab and setting up centres at divisional headquarters so that it could be included in the ADP of next year.

He stated this while addressing a media workshop on thalassemia arranged by PTPC at FJMU here on Wednesday. FJMU Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Amir Zaman Khan, Registrar Prof Shareen Khawar, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital MS Dr Nauman Matloob, PTPC Project Director  Dr Shabnum Bashir and experts from the UK, Dr Mushtaq and Dr Shehnaz, also participated in the workshop.

Dr Shabnum Bashir said that DNA laboratory was working in which prenatal and other diagnostic tests were being carried out.

She said the cases not only from all over Pakistan but also from Afghanistan were coming to the lab for the purpose. She said that PTPC had conducted 84,655 tests of family members. She said that 536 major thalassemia cases of pregnant women had been detected.

Dr Shabnum Bashir said that at present, 60,000 thalassemia cases had been registered in Pakistan and at least Rs 300,000 were spent on each patient and the patient went through a very painful process.

Although, the latest treatment and diagnostic facilities have increased the life expectancy of the thalassemia patients but this also increased the ratio of such patients.

She said that the real target was to control birth thalassemia. She said that people did not have awareness about it and intermarriages of miner thalassemia carriers and cousin marriages were increasing different genetic diseases, including thalassemia. 

UHS: Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafiq chaired a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Health Sector Reforms at Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.

According to a handout issued here, during the meeting, a number important decisions were taken.

Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir and Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja were also present.

Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan said that under the revamping programme of 40 DHQ/THQ hospitals, shortage of doctors and nurses was being redressed, however, the hospitals were facing acute dearth of pharmacists, for which, there was a need to create 170 posts of pharmacists to meet the requirement of the hospitals.

He presented the case before the committee for approval. After taking consent of the members of the committee, the minister granted approval to create new posts of 170 pharmacists.

PPHA Chief Executive Dr Shabnum gave presentation regarding the establishment of public health agency. The Health Reforms Committee agreed to give IPH the status of constituent college of UHS for the promotion of public health education and research work.

The committee also approved creation of five new posts of professors for Institute of Ophthalmology, KEMU/Mayo Hospital, Lahore Lahore Waste Management Company MD Bilal Syed briefed the meeting on his visit to the Turkey in connection with the study on solid waste as well as hospital waste management system. He presented his observations regarding the use of latest technology for hospital waste. The cabinet committee deliberated upon the use of incinerators, auto-clave sterilisation and microwave method.

Kh Salman Rafiq said that environment and human health-friendly technology should be used for hospital waste management, keeping in view the ground realities and local needs.

The consultants of the developed countries also be taken on board for utilisation of latest technology, the minister added.

P&D member health Dr Shabana Haider said a comprehensive plan for infection control should be prepared and the hospital waste management would be a component of that plan.