USAID to provide $30 million for health sector

Mission Director of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ms Anne Aarnes on Monday said that USAID would provide 30 million dollars to Pakistan this year for support in health sector.
She was speaking here at the inaugural ceremony of a two-year course to train Pakistan's future field epidemiologist as part of the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (FELTP) funded by USAID. "Trained and committed workers are the foundation in which all systems and institutions are built," she said in her address. Ms Aarnes stated that this initiative was part of a much larger set of health initiatives that USAID was supporting in Pakistan.
She said USAID's support for Pakistan's health sector during last year exceeded 45 million dollars and included a range of programmes related to maternal and new-born healthcare, family planning, clean water and infectious disease prevention and control.
The course, adopted from the US based Epidemic Intelligence Service programme and taught by both foreign and Pakistani experts, will cover areas of epidemiology, statistics, surveillance, outbreak detection and response.
Ms Aarnes expressed the hope that this cohort of epidemiologist, being developed through USAID assistance will bring about a very positive change in the results produced by health departments. "They will be more efficient in detecting and responding to communicable diseases outbreaks," she added. Support for FELTP is part of the 1.5 billion dollars in aid that the US government is providing to Pakistan over a five-year period to improve economic growth, education, health, governance and earthquake reconstruction.
Director General Health Major General Shahida Malik (Retd) said the launching of FELTP last year was timely step towards right direction and would greatly help the healthcare delivery system in proper planning thereby yielding best return for the government's investment in health sector.
She said the development of network of field epidemiologist with continued technical support from CDC expert pool would definitely go a long way towards strengthening the existing surveillance and laboratory systems and help in reduction of disease morbidity and mortality. She assured every sort of assistance and co-operation required for the success of this programme.
Executive Director National Institute of Health Major General Masood Anwar said FELTP has been working in many countries and Pakistan is very fortunate to have an opportunity to strengthen their health system through such programmes. Resident Advisor FELTP Pakistan Dr Rana Jawad Asghar on the occasion highlighted the salient features of the project and role of the partner institutions.