12 April 2005	Tuesday	02 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 11: A legislation to ban the unsafe use of injections was on the anvil, said Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan while speaking at a seminar here on Monday. The seminar on injection safety was organized by the National Institute of Health in collaboration with the health ministry, WHO and Unicef. The minister said: “A draft legislation on disposable medical devices is ready and under the consideration of the cabinet after which it would be presented before parliament for final approval.” .

Unsafe injections, including reuse of disposable syringes, have been established as one of the primary reasons for the spread of hepatitis B and C in Pakistan, he said.

Other factors associated with these infections are un-screened blood transfusion, unsafe sexual practices and vertical transmission of germs in case of hep-

atitis B.

Internationally, unsafe injections have also been documented to transmit HIV as well, the minister said, adding that though injections were given in many forms but two key areas were immunization and therapeutic injections.

Safety of immunization injections has moved further with the introduction of auto disable (AD) syringes, he said. He added that still changing behaviour of immunization injection provider and sharps waste management needed improvement in this particular area.

Stressing the need for clean drinking water, he said 70 per cent diseases could be controlled by using clean water.

He said the government had increased the health budget from Rs4.3 billion to Rs6.1 billion to provide better health facilities to general public.

Moreover, the government has also allocated Rs31 billion for mother and child health care besides Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had recently approved Rs2.5 billion for the control of hepatitis.

Briefing the minister about the diseases being spread through the use of unsafe injections, Dr Altaf Bosan Gavi said hepatitis B and C were also transmitted through the use of unsafe injections syringes.

Animal diseases: Pakistan Livestock Research Scientists Association has stressed the need for taking steps to control contagious diseases of animals so as to increase production of meat and milk.

A meeting of the association was held with its president Hafiz Matiullah in the chair.

The participants observed that there was a need for proper planning to increase livestock production. They also took stock of the sharp rise in the prices of meat, milk and other related products. Unless this has been made possible, prices of meat and milk won’t come down, they said.