Sindh govt decides to merge four health programmes to fight infectious diseases

In order to reap maximum benefits of the resources allocated for health, the Sindh government has decided to merge four major vertical programmes being run in the health department separately, including typhoid, hepatitis, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, and constitute a programme for the prevention of infectious diseases in the province, officials said on Friday.

“A lot of resources are being spent on these vertical programmes despite the fact that all these programmes have been working for the prevention of infectious viral and bacterial diseases. In order to reap maximum benefits of resources being spent separately on these programmes, the government has decided to bring them under one umbrella of prevention from infectious diseases,” Secretary Health Saeed Awan told The News.

He said the planning to combine resources in the area of health was underway since the creation of the present provincial government. He added that in the first step, it had been decided to look into the possibility of merging programmes that were separately working in the area of infectious diseases.

In order to evaluate the possibility of convergence of these vertical programmes, the provincial government notified a high-powered committee comprising health officials, experts and representatives from public and private hospitals, international health bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and representatives from NGOs, to review the performance of typhoid, hepatitis, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis programmes with the objective of combining their resources to curb and prevent infectious diseases in the province.

The committee formed by the government would be headed by the special secretary (public health) or additional secretary (technical) of the health department in addition to 32 other members, including the director general health, Sindh, the chief executive officer of the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC), the DGs of different agencies, programme managers, representatives from the federal government, WHO, NGOs, experts from private hospitals, universities and experts from the water and sanitation departments to advise the government on the creation of a single programme to combat infectious diseases in the province.

Secretary Health Saeed Awan said HIV/Aids and hepatitis were both viral and blood-borne diseases and hence there was a need to combine these programmes so that they could be prevented, controlled and treated.

Similarly, typhoid and tuberculosis were bacterial diseases and mode of their prevention was almost similar, so these programmes should be run under one umbrella so that effective preventive measures could be adopted in the province, he added.

Officials said all the infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV/Aids, typhoid and tuberculosis, were going out of control despite having separate vertical programmes, which were utilizing millions of rupees annually without any results. He added that there were several other programmes, including the Dengue Prevention and Control Program and Malaria Control and Prevention Program, which should also be brought under a unified command as they were also infectious, vector-borne diseases.

“We have included experts, representatives and officials from all the relevant departments in the committee so that they could review the possibility of convergence of resources being spent on these programmes and also advise the authorities on appropriate utilisation of budgets of these programmes,” he added.

The health secretary maintained that the high-level committee had been given a vast mandate which also include clinical guidelines for the management and prevention of infectious diseases as well as gathering the data and developing a joint website for the infectious diseases.

“The committee has been given the task to hold its initial meeting as soon as possible and present its recommendations to the government so that necessary steps could be taken in the right direction.”