01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan on Thursday warned that certain vested interests were selling hepatitis vaccine injections only to mint money because no treatment was available to completely cure the deadly disease.

"The only treatment is prevention and there exists no cure for hepatitis B and C," the minister told reporters at his office. Vaccines are only effective on children but have lost their efficacy on adults. That is why Hepatitis-B vaccine is part of the Extended Programme of Immunization (EPI), the minister said.

He said his ministry alone could not solve the health problems in the country and it was the collective responsibility of the government machinery to protect the people from diseases.

Ninety per cent diseases can be prevented by simply ensuring safe transmission of blood and related products and providing clean drinking water to the people, he said, adding that a large number of diseases were the result of open sewage system and contaminated water.

He said WHO had committed $1.5 million grant to ensure the availability of quality vaccines to eradicate polio. He said only 30 cases of polio had been identified in the country during 2004.

The minister also warned the heads of all federal government hospitals that they should refurbish available diagnostic and treatment facilities within a month or get ready for action. He said he had already written letters to all the hospitals in this regard.

About spurious drugs, he said a countrywide campaign would soon be launched by involving the provincial governments, judicial magistrates, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as well as the parliamentarians.

The minister said Pakistan was moving fast towards becoming a polio-free country. Polio paralyzed 350,000 children the world over in 1998 while the number declined to 1900 in 2003. He said the number of endemic countries had also fallen from 125 to six only including Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Niger and Nigeria.

He said Saudi Arabia had placed an order for surgical equipment worth $40,000. "We are also trying to send 10,000 doctors and postgraduates to that country," he said. "I have also asked the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to take measures to improve the standard of medical education in the country to meet the international requirements.

Similarly, the departments concerned have been asked to improve the quality of training of nursing and paramedics to meet the demand of the profession in Saudi Arabia. Brushing aside the impression that the government was not taking proper measures against hepatitis and tuberculosis, he explained that the mode of transmission or prevention of both the HIV/AIDS and hepatitis were the same. The government is also aggressively pursing a strong free-of-cost DOTS treatment system, he added.