Public health: Joint committee to fight hepatitis named

Heath adviser says the committee will also recommend steps for better hospital waste management.

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has formed a joint action committee to prevent, control and manage hepatitis cases, Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafiq said on Friday.

“The committee, consisting of officers of various departments, will prepare a joint action plan and SOPs [standard operating procedures] to deal with hepatitis B and C,” Rafiq told the first meeting of the committee at Civil Secretariat.

The committee would work on the pattern of dengue control programme, he said.



Rafiq favoured forming a subcommittee consisting of focal persons to be nominated by the departments concerned.

“The committee will devise terms of references (TORs) and an action plan for the prevention and control of hepatitis B and C,” he said. The committee would also recommend steps for public awareness about hospital waste management and case management of hepatitis patients, he said.

Rafiq said general practitioners and family physicians’ associations had been taken on board so that a joint strategy might be prepared for the prevention and management of the disease. “Hepatitis is a fast growing problem that needs to be controlled at all cost,” he said.

Health Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik, Health Services Director General Zahid Pervaiz, Environment Protection Secretary Iqbal Chauhan, Social Welfare Secretary Haroon Rafiq, Schools Education Additional Secretary Khursheed Ali Zaidi, Auqaf Additional Secretary Shafique Ahmad, Social Welfare Director Muhammad Salman and Punjab AIDS Control Programme’s Tayyaba Rashid attended the meeting.

Solar power

German Ambassador Cyrill Nunn called on the chief minister on Friday and discussed promotion of bilateral relations and cooperation in energy sector.

Sharif said Pakistan and Germany had brotherly relations. He said Germany was a trading partner of Pakistan.

“Germany has expertise in energy sector and Pakistan wants to benefit from this,” he said. He said the government had been doing its best to overcome the energy crisis.

The chief minister mentioned the recently inaugurated project at Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park producing 100 megawatts. He said the provincial government had completed the project using its own resources. He said the park would add another 350 megawatts later this year and 550 megawatts the next year.

Sharif praised German consultants for their help in pursuing the project. He said that apart from generating electricity from alternative sources, the government had decided to generate 3,600 megawatts from gas.

He said of these, 2,400- megawatt power projects would be set up by the federal government and 1,200- megawatt by the Punjab government.

Sharif said cooperation of German companies in the energy sector would be welcomed. The German ambassador said Germany wanted to enhance its relationship with Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.