Medical and veterinary experts have called for taking preventive and precautionary measures and creating awareness among people to check the spread of swine flu and other zoonosis (spreading from swine to humans) diseases in the country.
"At least 60 percent of the human diseases originate from animals the experts said while speaking at a seminar on "Swine Flu" arranged by the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore in collaboration with the Pakistan Medical Society (PMS) on the City Campus of the UVAS on Friday.
Punjab Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Ahmed Ali Aulakh was chief guest on the occasion while Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz, EDO Health Punjab Dr Fayyaz Ranjha, PMS President Dr Masood Akhtar Shaikh, MPAs Sakina Shaheen and Haji Allah Rakha were also present.
Addressing as chief guest, Punjab Livestock Minister Ahmed Ali Aulakh has said that the government is well aware of its responsibilities and has taken all measures to stop swine flu. He said education and health are the top most priorities of the Punjab government. He deplored that rural people are the victim of zoonosis as they are always in direct contact with animals while the government is now using its resources for their welfare.
Head of the National Reference Laboratory on influenza viruses Dr Khalikd Naeem Khawaja spoke about "Influenza viruses emerging trends with international perspective." He said that swine flu spreads from influenza virus-A and it is highly contagious. He said it is a trans-boundary animal disease and also spreading from swine to humans. He said that people of 5 to 45 years of age are the mostly affected from the swine flu disease in the world.
He recommended that people should wash hands with soup frequently besides taking other preventive measures to prevent the disease. Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz said that over 100 human diseases have their origin from animals and the people handling animals have to take extraordinary precautionary measures against such zoonosis diseases.
Speaking about the measures taken by the Punjab Health Department, Dr Muhammad Salcem Rana from the Directorate General Health Punjab said all precautionary measures have been taken to check the spread of swine flu diseases.
He said that special cells have been set up at airports and the government hospitals at district level with trained staff to handle suspected cases of swine flu. "Personal protective equipment and need based viral drugs have been made available to deal with any emergency case of swine flu," he added.
Dr Masood Akhtar Sheikh said that so far only two cases of swine flu have been reported in Pakistan while many cases of this disease have been reported in India. He stressed that awareness should be created among the people about the disease and preventive measures are the only way to eradicate the swine flu disease.
Dr Fayyay Ranjha assured the participants that all the preventive measures have been taken against swine flu and there is no need to worry about this. Dr Mahmood Mukhtar of Department of Microbiology, UVAS, spoke about "Influenza Virus Genomics."
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