[31 October 2004] Interviewed by Abdel- Hameed al-Sherabi.

Dr. Khaled Al-Irayani, director of the general health office in the capital secretariat stated that the office has shut down some 110 of the wholesale drugs storages in the capital Sana’a for dealing with the a number of contraband drugs and narcotics .

Al-Iryani told Sabanet that a central incinerator for the hospitals wastes is scheduled to be set up in Al-Azeraqain dump. Here is his interview’s full text with Sabanet.

Q: What did the health office manage to achieve?
A: The office has made many achievements over the past two years. Several legal and technical measures had been taken. Legally , there are a number of health offices were set up in the districts in pursuant to the local authority law .

Technically, many practical steps have been adopted such as building health utilities, providing the needed equipments, services and medical cadres. We have begun establishing around 18 health complex , furthermore the lands belong to the health office were fenced to be protected from further sneaking acts.

There are about 130 pieces of lands have been fenced. Health centers are being equipped with the basic medical apparatus. Consequently, health centers services have been increased to cover many areas.

It is enough to make a comparison between health centers monthly receipts in the past and at the present to realize the enlargement took place in their services. For instance , al-Olofi health center’s income used to range from 280-300 thousand YR per a month whereas it runs up to 800 thousand now.

Q: What about the campaigns on the contraband drugs?
A: Some 110 of unlicensed wholesale drugs stores were closed up for dealing with contraband drugs. Our task is to monitor the drugs stores and to report any pharmaceutical company deals with contraband or counterfeit drugs.

Q: What is your own mechanism for keeping the eye on the medical utilities?

A: We do try to launch unexpected inspection campaigns on the pharmacies and the private medical installations. There is internal by law regulates the pharmacies activities. Health Office' officers pay inspections raids to make sure that pharmaceuticals are running their pharmacies in accordance with the concerned regulations.

Concerning to the licenses, they are granted according to the law of the private medical institutions. The law is very clear, it stipulates technical characteristics in the cadres and geometrical conditions of the building.

The problem is that there are installations given licenses before the law. The law has given three years for repairing the geometrical defects and one year for readjusting the technical conditions. We do not renew the license of any installation unless it is fully abide by the law.

There was a problem pertaining to the clinics of first aids but the cabinet had issued a decree bans running such as clinics.
There are some of these clinics had come into existence before the cabinet’s decision being issued, however they would not be allowed to renew their licenses once more.

Q: The state run hospitals’ s services neither free-fees nor up to standards! What’s your mechanism to bring health services up to the marks?

A: The government run hospitals services are no longer for free, however their fees are nominal. The fact is that public hospitals are lacking some facilities and an advanced medical apparatus and equipments.

Because of the tremendous increasing in the capital secretariat inhabitants, there is much pressure on the governmental hospitals. Thereby, we are in need of further hospitals and health centers.

For instance, there must be a center for each 100,000 inhabitants. Thus , there is a dire need of a number of specialized hospitals and highly specialized medical cadres to meet the overriding demands for health services.

Q: What are the prospective plans for developing the health services and activating the monitoring role in the capital secretariat?

A: We have actually devised a plan aims at handling the problems we are facing and improving the health services. The plan has been put in practice through carrying out a field survey aimed to identify the widespread endemics.

The survey’s results showed up that there are several pandemics diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis A and B, malaria and AIDS.
The supervision ’s efforts recorded around 32783 cases of diarrhea, 530 malaria’s case and 145 HIV cases. More than 90% of the AIDS’ s cases are expatriates from the African Horne countries.

Afterwards , we kept these diseases under surveillance to find out to what extent the spread of the endemics have come. Then, we have begun to tackle the reasons helped spreading the aforementioned pandemics.


A: How about the hospitals’ wastes disposal?
A: The hospitals waste materials are being loaded into dump trucks to be disposed in the town rubbish dump of Al-Azraqain area outside the capital Sana’a. A central incinerator will be set up in the capital secretariat so as to secure a safe disposal of the hospitals wastes.
Saba