MANSEHRA, June 30: Major causes of the outbreak of epidemics are overcrowding, refugee factor, human and animal migrations, lack of clean drinking water, poor sanitary conditions and low vaccination coverage , says executive director of the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, Dr Athar Saeed Dil.

He was speaking on Monday on the opening day of a three-day training workshop on 'disease early warning system' that was arranged by the NIH in collaboration with the WHO at a local hotel here.

Stressing the need for a greater public-private partnership, he said that it was vital for better management and prevention of infectious diseases. Dr Athar Saeed Dil said that as many as 55 such training workshops had been held in different parts of the country to build health professionals' capacity on outbreak investigations and preparedness in high-risk districts.

He said that Mansehra district was especially targeted in this regard. He said that the programme was peripheral for creating awareness among health professionals about the outbreak of infectious diseases on the level of basic health unit, rural health centre, tehsil and district headquarter hospitals which suited well with the basic spirit of the devolution of power plan.

He urged that early detection of infectious diseases and timely intervention by the health professionals were two effective means of controlling epidemics. He said that the goal of the training workshop was to minimise the morbidity and mortality ratio of epidemic causing diseases.

Dr Athar Saeed Dil said that areas targeted by the NIH for the purpose were vulnerable to epidemics like cholera, gastroenteritis, polio, viral haemorrhagic fever, malaria, Congo fever, Dengue fever, meningitis, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, tetanus, influenza, bird-flu, viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.