Monday, March 27 2006 16:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As the country dealt with a bird flu scare, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (Mar 27, 2006) credited military medical resources with being the most trusted and capable forces in dealing with such situations.

"Military medical resources remain the most trusted and capable forces that can be garnered to tackle explosive disease situations like SARS, Avian Influenza and the looming epidemics," he said inaugurating the 16th Asia Pacific Military Medicine Conference (APMMC).

Mukherjee said the Armed forces have shown the most successful paths to combat many of these diseases.

In a special mention of the work done by the Armed forces in control of HIV and AIDS, he said, "I would also like to put on record the work done by Indian Armed Forces for the control of HIV and AIDS.

The importance of meticulous and logical planning and most importantly effective implementation and monitoring are the keys to success of the programmes in our Armed forces, which is worth emulation."

The Minister complimented the military medical services for being an "unique national resource" and said they have been frequently called upon to assist in rescue and relief work in natural disasters like recent earthquake on the Indo-Pak, the tsunami in South Asia or Hurricane Katrina in the US.