KARACHI, May 25: Sindh Health Adviser Faisal Malik has dispelled the reported outbreak of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea consequently causing high rate of mortality in any part of the province. Addressing a press conference in his office here on Wednesday, the adviser said that cases of gastroenteritis were registered in certain remote areas of Sindh on routine pattern as reported during summers.

He said that a total number of 10,500 cases of gastroenteritis or diarrhoea, of varied intensities, were registered during the last one and a half months and 27 gastroenteritis induced deaths were reported during the same period. Ten of these deaths were reported in different taluka government hospitals and other rural health care facilities, he said, mentioning that it is only when the condition of patients gets severer that he is brought to a proper health care facility be it a hospital or a health centre in rural areas.

Faisal Mailk maintained that outbreak of the disease was also mainly due to inability of the concerned district and taluka governments to provide potable water, proper hygienic conditions and cleanliness in their respective areas of jurisdiction ultimately leading to the disease that repeatedly occurred during summers.

“Sindh health department is fully conscious of its responsibilities. As for the very purpose, an emergency cell has already been constituted at the office of the Sindh Health Director-General in Hyderabad,” he said, mentioning that the department has adequate stock of medicines and drugs to meet any untoward incident.

Faisal Malik mentioned that a 25 to 30 per cent increase was expected in context of procurement of medicines during the next fiscal budget adding that a summary was despatched to the chief minister as well as to the ministry of finance by the health department.

According to him, the health department has also embarked upon a campaign to combat counterfeit drugs and the number of drug inspectors is being increased with more authority to bring to book the culprits.

He said that a surveillance mechanism would be ensured so that assigned inspectors realize their duties honestly and in a transparent manner. In this regard, he said, a task force headed by Additional Health Secretary (Technical) has been constituted. The task force had already referred samples of drugs collected from different markets only recently, he said. If the samples were found fake, expected to be established in a few days time, it would lead to referral of the cases to the Drug Courts, the adviser said, mentioning that a similar exercise is being undertaken to asses the quality of available services at private hospitals viz a viz their charges.

He also mentioned that a proposal had been sent to the chief minister for imposition of patients’ user charges, ranging from Rs5 to Rs10, on patients visiting government hospitals.

With regard to provision for Medico-Legal Officers at 10 different government hospitals in Karachi and some six major private health care institutions, Faisal Malik said that deliberations were underway and facilities were being provided for postmortem at all these facilities.

Reiterating government commitment to ensure maximum health facilities for the masses, the adviser said that 70 new ambulances had only recently been procured while stringent measures were underway to implement Safe Blood Transfusion Act.

With a view to expand state-of-the-art health care facilities in the interior of Sindh, he said that 52 acres had been allotted for Sardar Ghulam Ali Mehar Hospital at Sukkur.

Meanwhile, a feasibility report for a medical college in Mirpurkhas has almost been completed and work would be started without any unnecessary delay.

About the Sindh Health Policy, he said that its implementation would take another one to two months as it was currently before the law department and being vetted. After the very procedure, it would be presented before the Sindh Assembly.—APP