ISLAMABAD, July 16: India and Pakistan will jointly launch the next round of a polio eradication campaign. “Both the countries have agreed to do it together to make the region polio-free,” Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan told reporters after the concluding session of health ministers’ summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). So far, only 12 cases of polio have been reported in Pakistan.

The summit unanimously approved the Islamabad Declaration on Health and Population, which asked Saarc countries to allocate a larger percentage of GDP on health, nutrition, population and related research.

Saarc ministers have also committed to develop regional policies and programmes to strengthen the partnership to check illegal trade in drugs, medicines and the regional/inter-regional movement of spurious, sub-standard drugs and food as well as narcotics and psychotropic substances.

Protection, promotion and mainstreaming of the traditional system of medicines in healthcare delivery systems of member countries were also stressed.

They agreed to explore options of designating a regional public health institute and to set up an expert group on population to exchange each other’s experiences and policies in the areas of family planning and reproductive health.

The declaration also called upon stakeholders, including development partners to complement efforts in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and addressing other priority health and population issues. Out of eight Millennium Development Goals, three are directly related to health.

Strengthening regional mechanism for exchange of faculty and students in the disciplines of medical sciences and public health education was also urged in the declaration in addition to supporting networking of national research institutions in conducting collaborative research projects to address regional health priorities and the need to establish a regional research fund.

Saarc countries were also asked to foster a collaborative environment and develop a mechanism for enhanced regional cooperation in health and population and facilitate sharing of experiences, technical expertise and successes in health and population.

Earlier, Health Minister Nasir Khan highlighted Pakistan’s health challenges like combating communicable and non-communicable diseases, water and sanitation issues, malnutrition, road injuries, emerging and re-emerging diseases like HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.