KARACHI, Feb 17: Around 1,500 health care professionals hailing from 80-odd countries helped Pakistan cope with the effects of the Oct 8 earthquake, a top government official publicly said on Friday.

Speaking as chief guest at an international seminar on bioethics at the Aga Khan University, director-general of the federal health ministry, Dr Abdul Majid Rajput, said Pakistan couldn’t have coped with the difficult situation as well as it did if the foreign health care professionals had not chosen to come over and help it in “its hour of need”.

“For this, we cannot thank the foreign doctors and other medical professionals enough,” he said. The doctors of Karachi should also be appreciated because they were among the first to mount rescue and relief efforts.

During a break in the seminar, Dr Rajput told Dawn that among the 86 countries which had sent their health care professionals; by far the biggest contingent was Cuba’s. “They sent more than 600 professionals. And what’s amazing, they are willing to send even more of them.”

He said Cubans had set up around 30 hospitals and other field camps in the quake-hit areas.

“We are indebted to all the countries that extended a helping hand, but we are grateful especially to the Cubans.”

Dr Rajput claimed that some multinational pharmaceutical companies had also played a crucial role in mitigating the effects of the calamity.

“Let me give you an example. There’s one company which gave us 1 million doses of a particular vaccine. Now, this consignment alone is worth $28 million.”