Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Formulating an action plan for implementation of International Health Regulation (IHR) and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is imperative at this hour of need. Pakistan being signatory of IHR-GHSA it is not only mandatory for our province to chalk out a plan of action for implementation of IHR-GHSA objectives but it is our moral and national obligation to plan and implement the said regulations in true spirit.

This was the crux of the consultative meeting held here Thursday regarding development of provincial plan of action for implementation of International Health Regulation and Global Health Security Agenda organized by Health Department in collaboration with World Health Organization and Khyber Medical University. Participants from Health, Agriculture, Live Stock, Public Health, Information and Environment Departments, KTH, HMC and LRH participated in the said meeting.

According to the details the meeting was a follow up activity of Joint External Evaluation (JEE) regarding the statutes of the implementation of IHR and GHSA which was conducted in May 2016 by a team of international experts from WHO and CDC. JEE mission experts assessed existing International Health Regulations and Global Health Security Agenda related capacities in Pakistan in the guide lines of 19 technical areas specified by World Health Organization (WHO) in IHR-GHSA agenda.

Addressing the participants of consultative meeting VC KMU Dr Muhammad Hafizullah said that formulating a plan for implementation of IHR-GHSA is the need of the hour. He said Pakistan being signatory of IHR-GHSA it is not only mandatory for our province to chalk out a plan of action for implementation of IHR-GHSA objectives but it is our moral and national obligation to plan and implement the said regulations in true spirit.

He assured that being a sole public sector medical university, KMU will continue facilitation and support all such like activities. He hoped that the outcomes of the series of the meetings will help us to bring a major change in the overall health delivery system.

It is worth mentioning that all stake holders reviewed the JEE targets recommendations and areas needing strengthening against each of the 19 technical areas and they developed a zero draft for five years as a road map on IHR-GHSA for Pakistan.