UK health body to give support to IPH

LAHORE:

The UK Health Security Agency mission during its Pakistan tour visited the Institute of Public Health (IPH) in the provincial capital on Friday.

According to sources, the mission members had a detailed discussion with the Dean of the IPH, Prof Dr Zarfishan Tahir, and her technical team about creating a robust system using modern information technology in terms of disease prevention, detection and response.

Dr Zarfishan said Pakistan was a signatory to the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 under which it was the prime responsibility of the country to strengthen various technical areas of the health sector.

She said capacity building of the staff should be done on modern lines while a comprehensive strategy to prevent, detect and respond should be adopted with reference to diseases and prevention of the spread of epidemics in a timely manner.

She said that the Health Security Agency of the UK was providing technical assistance to Pakistani institutions to strengthen the public health sector.

Dr Mohammad Sartaj, country head of the UK Health Security Agency, said that the Health Security Agency would provide technical support to the IPH experts in environmental epidemiology and e-learning programmes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2023.