Strategies being devised to control hepatitis: official
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The government is devising strategies to control the spread of hepatitis-B and C that posed a major public health challenge.
This was stated by Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood while presiding over a meeting here on Tuesday at the National Institute of Health (NIH).
The meeting was held to discuss a draft feasibility on preventing all types of hepatitis, especially B and C. High ranking officials of the Health Ministry, including Director-General Health Dr Abdul Majeed Rajput, health experts and representatives from partner agencies attended the meeting.
The health secretary said the government was cognizant of the prevalence of hepatitis-B and had embarked upon a plan to immunise every child at birth against the disease.
Expressing satisfaction over the successful implementation of the hepatitis-B initiative countrywide, he said under the programme, every child under one year of age was being provided vaccination free of cost.
He said the feasibility envisaged major initiatives to control the spread of hepatitis-B and C, including awareness raising, laboratory diagnostic facilities at the district level, training of health staff and vaccination against the disease in high risk groups.
Since the implementation has to be ensured by the provincial governments, Mr Mehmood suggested that the draft should be sent to the provinces for developing a consensus. The secretary also directed the NIH authorities to fine tune the feasibility in line with input from provinces and partner agencies.
He also asked the DG Health to convene a committee to look into ways to enhance the budget proposed in the draft feasibility and come up with a revised version at the earliest. This is more an issue of the less privileged segments of the society and "we must accord it top priority," he observed.
Earlier, WHO hepatitis Adviser Dr Altaf Hussein Bosan made a presentation on the salient features of the feasibility report. Lt-Gen K.A. Karamat, speaking on the occasion, emphasized that adult vaccination was not a recommended strategy to control hepatitis-B. He said only high-risk groups should be immunized.
Dr Birjees Mazher Kazi, chief of Public Health Division of the NIH, said blood transfusion authorities at the provincial level were yet to frame their rules. Intensive discussion was held on the proposed components and different aspects of the draft.
Anthony Mounts of the World Health Organization briefed the meeting on the status of Polio Eradication Initiative in Pakistan. He said the country was well on course towards complete eradication of the disease in near future, provided the forthcoming anti-polio campaigns were of highest quality.
The health secretary called for bringing the media on board to create awareness about different technical aspects of the campaign, including the issue of vaccine efficacy.
