ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: About 387 people, who had lost their limbs in different parts of the AJK and the NWFP during the October 8 earthquake, have registered themselves with different specialized artificial limb centres in the country. The Ministry of Health had asked the amputees to get themselves registered with such centres, a high-level meeting, presided over by Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood, was told here on Tuesday.

Of the total, 59 victims have been discharged from these facilities run by the government and international organizations after getting their artificial limbs.

The amputees have also been trained to use the artificial limb. As many as 91 amputees are undergoing training at present and would soon be discharged, the meeting was told. Eleven specialized limb replacement facilities, including Mayo Hospital Lahore, Fauji Foundation, ICRC and PIPOS, are catering for the amputees.

The meeting also decided that in order to meet the shortage of medical staff at different health facilities in quake-stricken areas of the AJK, medical officers in federal government hospitals in Islamabad and Karachi having AJK domicile would be posted on temporary basis at health facilities in affected areas of the AJK.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has granted for another year accreditation to the Polio Regional Reference Laboratory established at the National Institute of Health.

WHO Regional Director Dr Hussein A Gezairy, in a letter to the Health Minister Mohammed Nasir Khan, said it had been observed that the laboratory was maintaining high standards.

Congratulating the minister and the technical staff working at the laboratory, the WHO regional head asked them to sustain the high standard of performance during this critical phase of polio eradication. A spokesman for the National Institute of Health, commenting on the letter, said it was a tribute to the technical excellence and skills of Pakistani scientists and technicians whose performance had been recognized at the international level.