Abu Dhabi, 15th May 2010 (WAM) -- The Ministry of Health signed a memorandum of understanding with Astrazeneca to organize a survey covering all the emirates aimed for identifying epidemiological causes for "Asthma" and benefiting from the results of the survey in preparing curative instructional manual in primary healthcare field.
The signing agreement was attended by Dr. Hanif Hassan, UAE Minister of Health, Dr. Salem Al Darmaki, Acting Director General, while it was signed by Dr. Mahmood Fikri, Executive Director for Health Policies, on behalf of the Ministry and Tarek Rabah, CEO of Astrazeneca for Pharmaceutical Industries in the GCC and Pakistan regions. Dr. Mahmood Fikri stated that the memorandum of understanding comes as part of the societal partnership between government and non-government institutions to implement the national plans of developing human resources and welfare of the members of the community. He said: "The survey aims for identifying the dissemination rate in the UAE, preparing curative instructional manuals that would make a great step towards guaranteeing the safety and healthcare of the society, encouraging doctors and physicians to raise the societys awareness of its effects and establishing a medical database based on collective guidelines to prepare important conclusions about the causes of the disease and its rates". Dr. Fikri explained that the survey targets a group age of 6-7 as well as 13-14 years old in three phases. Phase one begins from now till November 2010 where Astrazeneca in cooperation with the primary healthcare department in the Ministry will prepare primary curative instructional manuals to be reviewed and evaluated by a group of specialists. The second phase begins from Next November till December 2010 and includes the distribution of manuals and questionnaires in both Arabic and English languages in order to assist the physicians in understanding and applying unified curative guidelines. In addition, a workshop about the ways of implementing the instructional manuals in public and private healthcare authorities will be organized according to the suggested dates of the primary healthcare department at the Ministry of Health. The third phase assesses the successful results of the curative instructional manuals and their role in improving diagnosis and treatment, drawing conclusions of the questionnaires and forms that were previously distributed during phase two in cooperation with the primary healthcare department at the Ministry of Health and Astrazeneca. At the end of the phase, a comprehensive comparison of the data, survey findings and registered infection rates will be announced. Dr. Fikri added that a press conference to be attended by experts of the WHO Regional Eastern Mediterranean Office will be organized to announce and declare the results of the survey as the first epidemiological study be done in the UAE about the infected symptoms and asthma rates in the society.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.
