LAHORE:Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Dr Irshad Ahmad said on Thursday that international standards of global health security would be achieved through bridging gaps and all-out efforts would be made in this regard.
Chairing a meeting on global health emergency response and international standards of public health, he said that the Health Department would upgrade the capacity building of its staff under International Health Regulations-2005. All commitments made under IRH-2005 would be implemented in letter and spirit, he added.
Dr Irshad said that the department, in collaboration with the UK health security agency, was undertaking extensive training of its staff on disease surveillance and response since December 2022. Desired results would be produced with collective efforts of all vertical programmes, he added. He maintained that Punjab had excelled in prevention of epidemics and pandemics. He held out assurance to the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination
(MoNHSR) and National Institute of Health (NIH) to fulfill its commitments and extended gratitude for their extensive cooperation in the health sector.
DGHS MoNHS Dr Shabana Saleem apprised the meeting about the measures to be taken by the Punjab government for health security under IRH-2005. The meeting also discussed upgrading capacity building of the health department for global health security and joint external evaluation mechanism.
Health Adviser Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Dr Safi Malik, Director NIH Dr Salman, provincial advisor UKHSA Dr Saeed Akhtar and WHO provincial chief Dr Jamshed Ahmad, DG HS Dr Ilyas Gondal, Additional Secretary Vertical Programs Saba Adil and Director CDC Dr Amir Mufti attended the meeting.