KARACHI, March 9: The three-day annual symposium of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre concluded with the recommendation that a national disaster management committee or commission should be set up to cope up with any case of a major catastrophe.

The concluding session of the symposium was chaired by a former director of the JPMC, Prof Z K Kazi.

It was observed during the session that since disaster management was a blend of various activities designed to protect and rehabilitate human beings and other resources, there was a need to ensure a good network and well coordinated group of experts for the purpose.

Giving details of the recommendations, the chairman of the symposium organizing committee, Prof Ghulam Mehboob, said it was resolved that the proposed disaster commission should include members of the medical profession, in addition to representatives from civic bodies, NGOs and government organizations.

The symposium also recommended setting up public awareness programmes aiming at preparing the public on how to act in the event of a disaster.

It was emphasized in the symposium that a long-term planning was needed to educate professionals and the public on how to prevent man-made disaster.

It was further recommended that a skills laboratory should be established at the JPMC, which will be open to all disciplines and departments of institutions.

Another suggestion was that the NICH, the NICVD and the JPMC should hold joint medical symposiums in order to save time and make the academic event more qualitative.

In his remarks, Prof Mashoor Alam, Director of the JPMC, said doctors were a chosen species for looking after humanity. And, as such, they were required to be stronger on the clinical side as challenges were enormous. “Once we, at JPMC, used to be the flag bearers of medicine knowledge,” he added, saying that the old zeal and potential was needed to be revived.

Secretary of the Symposium Dr Anisuddin Bhatti informed the participants that a book on JPMC’s history was ready for launching in March.

Earlier during the day, papers on various aspects of health sciences were presented on obstetric practice, thoracic medicine and surgery and other topics.

Prof I H Rathor said that while managing the common thoracic ailment, one should be vigilant about the presence of rare disorders.

Discussing the pattern of drug resistance in chronic tuberculosis patients registered at the JPMC, Dr Mirza Saifullah Baig, said more than 60 per cent of the patients had resistance to more than three first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs and, as such, more number of second-line drug was required for treatment.

He suggested that efforts should be made to prevent emergence of drug resistant TB by ensuring good standard treatment.

Dr Shaheena Qayyum said 56 per cent of TB patients had various degrees of depression, and it was directly related to duration and severity of the disease.

Patients with pulmonary tuberculosis are more depressed than patients having TB of other parts of the body, she added.

Dr Sohail Akhtar said the initial impact of the October 8 earthquake in the country was traumatic cases. But now, 42 per cent of patients visiting health centres in disaster area were with respiratory complaints.

Prof Waqar Ahmad, Dr Tariq Rafique, Prof Hasan Fatima Jaffry, Prof Ayesha Khan, Prof Majid Memon, Prof Shabana Tayyab, Prof Ilahi Bux Soomro, Prof Iftikhar A Jan, Kazi Abdul Shakoor, Prof Mohammad Saleh Memon, Prof Amtul Hafiz, Prof Mohammad Idrees, Prof Tariq Saeed Mufti, and Prof Fahim ul Haq also spoke.