KARACHI: Poor quality water puts child at risk of cancer
KARACHI, May 27: Inadequate availability of potable water and inappropriate sanitation facilities was causing increased incidence of liver infections induced by Hepatitis A and E among the local population including newborns and infants, said an expert on Tuesday.
Prof Iqbal Memon — head of the paediatrics ward of Civil Hospital Karachi — in his presentation titled “Diagnosis of Chronic Liver Diseases among Children” at Aga Khan University Hospital on Tuesday said that while liver disease among newborns was not very common, the poor quality of water made them vulnerable to serious diseases like cancers that could emerge much later.
“Seeding for liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer does occur in childhood owing to hepatitis A and E viruses,” he said, stressing timely diagnosis, treatment and above all prevention of the ailments.
Reminding the audience that jaundice among infants must not be overlooked but handled promptly, the senior paediatrician said most frequent cause of liver disease in paediatric patients according to age was viral hepatitis.
Hepatitis E again, he said, could be prevented through good hygiene and clean and safe drinking water and food. The infection said to be generally very trivial among older children and adults, if occurred during pregnancy could take a serious turn, resulting in acute liver failure in 10 to 20 per cent of the pregnant women.
Dr Sohail Thobani, a gastroenterologist discussing “Management of Hepatitis B”, mentioned that the prevalence of this virus was currently in the moderate range in the country. He expressed the hope that immunization campaign launched with the support of Bill Gates Grants would prevent any serious turn of events.
Saying that the problem was persistent infections which might progress into chronic hepatitis, leading to cirrhosis and ultimately hepatocellular cancer, the speaker warned that newborns exposed to Hepatitis B were at a high risk (80 per cent to 95 per cent) of assuming carrier status once exposed to acute Hepatitis B as compared to 50 per cent to 60 per cent chance among infants, 25 per cent among older children and five to 10 per cent among adults.
It may be mentioned here that chronic Hepatitis-B virus is a lifelong liver disease. The carriers stay infected without any symptoms or feeling sick but they could give the disease to others as well as themselves, ultimately ending in liver cancer.
Dr Thobani told the audience that there were some good vaccines for hepatitis B, but these were expensive and had their side effects too. In the given scenario all children and newborns must get vaccinated so that they had lasting immunity preventing Hepatitis B infection.
Dr Thobani reiterated that the entire exercise must be complimented across the board by active immunization of all infants against the disease, as scheduled under the Expanded Programme on Immunization campaigns in the country.
With regard to necessary examination, he advised the doctors present not to go for whole range of tests that were inexpensive but often useless. Screening for HBV surface antigen was said to be most effective and also cost effective method. — APP
