ISLAMABAD, April 7: Pakistan has applied for an international grant of $20 million from the Global Fund to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, said Tommy G. Thompson , the US secretary of health and human services, here on Wednesday.

"The global fund has already released three grants worth $30 million each to Pakistan for programmes like HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB," Mr Thompson told reporters here on Wednesday at the residence of US Ambassador Nancy Powell. Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan, UAE ambassador Ali Mohammad Hammad Al-Shamshi and Rotary Foundation chairman James L. Lacy also spoke on the occasion.

Mr Thompson further said this was the fourth grant for which Pakistan had applied and which will be reviewed by the Fund in Geneva (Switzerland) in June. The US health secretary, who is also chairman of the Global Fund, will also have the chance to vote. He arrived Pakistan after visiting Afghanistan and would leave for India on Thursday.

The secretary also visited the Children Hospital of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and stressed the need for close collaboration between hospitals of Pakistan and US in the fields of training and teaching. He also invited the Pims executive director and health minister to Washington to explore avenues for further cooperation.

"That is why, I am here because as chairman of the Fund, I would like to see what programmes are working and want to make sure that the Global Fund clearly meets the needs of people," he observed. The Fund also wanted to see countries like Pakistan to re-double its efforts to completely eradicate polio, he said.

He was of the view that health diplomacy could be a common ground for all of us because every man, woman and child wanted good health for themselves and for their families. In reply to a question, he said the US government was committed to assist Pakistan in border areas as well as in the entire country.

The US ambassador said the US was helping Pakistan in two ways to reduce maternal mortality rate which would be expanding in future also besides a $14 million fund for road building in Fata has been signed while another $10 million was in the pipeline.

"The US was also working on refurbishing girl schools in Fata and has asked Pakistan government to collaborate so that we could continue work there. These were in addition to the efforts to encourage people of FATA to adopt alternative cultivation instead of growing poppy."

Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan said Pakistan was committed to eradicate polio this year. "Our campaigns are going extremely well due to the strong political commitment."

He said DOTS programme to control TB was another high priority area for Pakistan. As regards to HIV/AIDS, he said "we are a low prevalence but high risk country, therefore, it was time to contain HIV/AIDS for which we have developed a strong programme to fight because we have lot of migratory population."

He said the US had shown interest in assisting Pakistan to build a hospital in Peshawar where patients from NWFP and Afghanistan especially the land mine victims would be treated. "This is also being done to show goodwill and commitment to serve the people of Afghanistan in whatever little form we can," he said.

Another area of focus would be emergency services for victims of road traffic accidents/trauma centre, upgrading and consolidating airport health facilities. "We have also discussed with the secretary about the capacity building to make the National Institute of Health (NIH) more stronger.

He said our polio campaigns were extremely successful, as we have also employed women vaccinators in the polio eradication rounds. We even involved Maulana Fazlur Rehman to inaugurate one of our campaign while plans to invite Jamaat Islamic Chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed to open the next round. All the religious leaders in mosques were also involved there it was wrong to suggest that we have resistance from religious element.