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National scene: Report on seismic survey by Jan 15
New building codes and report on a seismic survey is expected to be ready by Jan 15, according to the federal relief commissioner, Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan.
Speaking at a press conference last week, the relief commissioner said the death toll from the Oct 8 quake stood at 73,331. The number of injured persons had gone up to 128,288.
Providing adequate medical care to prevent epidemics and to tackle weather-related illnesses remained his commission’s primary objective, said Gen Khan. The government was maintaining a constant vigil on the affected areas through the disease early warning system.
He claimed that there had been no serious outbreaks yet, but warned that the number of pneumonia and other respiratory cases would increase as the weather worsens.
The World Health Organization and the Pakistani health ministry were taking measures to combat the weather. A mass immunization campaign had already been launched and 100 basic health units were being rebuilt, he added.
The Association of Consulting Engineers (Pakistan) held a meeting recently to discuss seismic-resistant design and the impact of earthquakes on various types of buildings and infrastructure.
The officials attending the meeting belonged to the Association of Builders and Developers, All Pakistan Contractors Associations, Institution of Engineers Pakistan, Sir Syed University, and the Urdu University. During the meeting a special committee was constituted to supervise and review earthquake zoning and to organize seminars on the subject so that awareness could be created among the masses.
The committee will also review building codes in accordance with the recommendations made by the Uniform Building Code (USA), with changes if required.
Scientists taking part in a workshop the other day urged the government to introduce a patent system. They said such a system would help promote scientific research and encourage researchers.
Speaking on the second day of a three-day workshop, organized by the Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Dr Sarfaraz Niazi, who works as a patent consultant in the US, revealed that the Higher Education Commission would provide financial and legal help to researchers so that they could patent their research products.
A paper was presented on the occasion by the well-known intellectual property consultant from Malaysia, Lee Yoke Chin, on the “use of patent information for research and development”.
He spoke at length about patenting products and how they could be used to modify chemical processes for product development.
Ali Shan — a Lahorite who reportedly contracted Congo virus not long ago — died in the Lahore General Hospital over the weekend. The patient’s body was taken away from the hospital by an Edhi ambulance at around 5am. No whereabouts of the body, or the patient’s relatives, could be found.
A doctor visited Akbari Gate but failed to locate the family or the body. Meanwhile, a three-member Punjab Epidemiology Committee visited the hospital to look into the case. The members of the committee took away the test reports of the patient.
When contacted, Punjab health adviser, Dr Anwaar Ahmad Bugvi, said the committee comprising Prof Farkhanda, Dr Nasir Iqbal, and Dr Muhammad Hasan had reported that the physical symptoms on the body resembled those of Congo virus haemorrhagic encephalitis, but clinical and laboratory tests did not support the assertion.
In response to a question, he said a postmortem was necessary in such sensitive cases but the hospital authorities required a permission from the relatives of the deceased in order to carry one out.
Participants of the first advocacy meeting of the National AIDS Control Programme were informed the other day that until September a total of 3,073 HIV and AIDS cases had been recorded in Pakistan. Of these, 332 were full-blown AIDS cases while the rest had HIV.
The meeting held in connection with the World AIDS Day was attended by representatives of various donor organizations, stakeholders and the media, besides government functionaries. Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan chaired the meeting.
The participants were informed that though Pakistan had a low number of HIV patients, it was highly vulnerable to the virus due to high number of risk factors, including exposure to infected blood and unsafe sex. — Agencies
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