K-P health minister calls for change in structure of the public health sector
for improvements.
There is a need to create awareness, effective legislation and preventive measures to control HIV/AIDS in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), said participants at a seminar on World AIDS Day.
The programme was organised by National AIDS Control Programme in collaboration with UNICEF and UNAIDS on Monday.
The provincial Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai, Director Health services K-P Dr Abdul Ghafoor, WHO representative in K-P Jamil Khan, UNICEF Field Officer in K-P and Fata Francois Kamtundu, Fata Deputy Director Health Sartaj Khan and Monitoring officer of K-P AIDS Control Program Dr Rajwal Khan were also present.
According to Shaukat Yousafzai, it is the responsibility of the government to focus on sensitive issues throughout the year. He added there was a need to change the basic structure of the government health regulatory institutions and this would bring about improvements in the health sector.
The minister stressed that the current government was adamant on taking preventive measures to contain the increasing rate of HIV cases. He lamented the condition of provincial health regulatory systems, which are run by unqualified people and vowed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government will soon introduce relevant legislation to bring the operators of substandard laboratories to justice.
Yousafzai said the government was faced with numerous challenges in the shape of polio, tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS but claimed nothing would be impossible if the health department and government hospitals were dedicated to their professions.
He said programmes like AIDS control and TB control were in operation for more than 10 years but they were limited to paperwork. The minister also directed relevant authorities of AIDS control programme in K-P to release salaries of their employees. He also promised constituting a team of experts comprised of journalists, Ulemas and health experts who will be tasked with chalking out a comprehensive plan and suggesting preventive measures to control the epidemic in K-P.
UNICEF Field Officer K-P Francois Kamtundu assured the support of UNICEF to the K-P government and urged health authorities to accelerate efforts to get rid of diseases like AIDS and Hepatitis. The official claimed that the government needs to embark on a large-scale awareness drive that highlights the negative aspects of AIDS.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2013.
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