HYDERABAD, March 7: Malaria disease is mainly caused due to unhygienic conditions. Unawareness and illiteracy among the majority rural population makes the treatment of this disease more complicated.

The disease is prevalent among those societies of the world where preventive measures are not taken beforehand. If malaria cases are mishandled these prove fatal.

This was the main thrust of the two-day inter-provincial coordination committee meeting which was presided over by the special secretary public health Sindh, Dr Capt (R) Abdul Majid on Wednesday.

Dr Majid said that the children and pregnant women were more vulnerable to catching the disease. Therefore, it is imperative that some community-based measures were taken to avoid the recurrence of malaria, especially in rural areas. He further said that the dengue virus was the main viral disease which too needed attention.

Health education officer Islamabad Dr Faisal Mansoor said that the government of Pakistan had signed an international covenant to reduce incidences of malaria up to 50 per cent by 2010 and 75 per cent by 2015. The government had pledged to provide cover to the population against the disease.

He emphasised upon the representatives of all four provinces to make best efforts in meeting the targets. He also persuaded Azad Kashmir and Fata representatives to help in eradicating malaria and dengue fever from their areas.

Among others who attended the meeting were director malaria control, ministry of health, government of Pakistan, Qamar Siddiqui, Dr Ziaur Rehman from Punjab, Dr Nawaz Ali Kalar from Sindh, Dr Khalid Iqbal from the NWFP, Dr Shakoor Alam from Balochistan and Dr Mehmood-ur-Rehman from FATA.

A 20-member committee from all the four provinces also attended the meeting.

LUMHS: The Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences has announced that second professional MBBS annual examination 2007 would be held on from March 27-April 3 at LUMHS, Chandka Medical College of Larkana, Nawabshah Medical College for Girls and Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College of Sukkur.