Azad to meet PM, present plan against encephalitis

Last Updated: Saturday, October 22, 2011, 11:35

Tags: UP encephalitis, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Manmohan Singh

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday with a plan to tackle the growing epidemic of encephalitis in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Azad, who on Thursday visited encephalitis-hit areas of UP, is also expected to form a panel on the issue.

With the encephalitis toll in eastern UP mounting to 474 this year, the Centre had yesterday said it is mulling short, middle and long-term plans to control the epidemic.

After visiting the Gorakhpur Medical College Hospital, Azad had termed the deaths as unfortunate and said, "It seems that vaccination drives are not carried out in a transparent manner from time to time or else the situation would have been better."

He said cooperation from all quarters was necessary to check spread of the epidemic and expressed concern over the shortage of para-medical staff.

First Published: Saturday, October 22, 2011, 11:35

Comments

ARPrabhakar - Delhi
Mr Azad is a good politician and a good trouble shooter for his party, but,a minister of health could better be a professional who understands the game better than the politicians.Though this is not a aspersion on his handling of his portfolio,bit , it would still be better to have a professional incharge of this deptt.