K-P health minister urges officials to focus on key health issues

The minister expresses concerns over the increasing disease burden on society

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Minister Shahram Tarakai on Tuesday urged health officials and researchers to work on addressing key health issues such as unhygienic drinking water, sanitation and environmental problems and zoonotic diseases.

He said this at the inaugural ceremony of eighth research conference by Khyber Medical University (KMU).

Tarakai noted the varsity’s contributions in research on medicine.

The health minister expressed concerns over the increasing disease burden on society and suggested that immediate corrective and preventive measures should be taken to resolve the issue.

He said that it was high time that issues such as unhygienic drinking water, sanitation and environmental problems, and zoonotic diseases were dealt with. He stressed on the need for all relevant departments and the KMU to collaborate and devise a comprehensive strategy to address all health related problems in the region.

The health minister noted that his government had submitted a proposal to establish a Public Health Reference Lab at the varsity KMU and they had recently tabled a bill in this regard in the K-P assembly.

KMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hafizullah said that their conference was be aimed at deriving a multi-prong strategy to overcome the disease burden in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2017.