05 March 2005	Saturday	23 Muharram 1426

PESHAWAR, March 4: Shortage of Zakat fund is hitting hard hepatitis C positive patients in the Peshawar district. "My wife used to get interferon injections for hepatitis C from Zakat fund at the Satellite Hospital, Kohat road.

Now, the hospital is running short of funds and it is difficult for us to complete 72 doses of injections," said schoolteacher Ajmad Khan while talking to this correspondent.

He said that his wife had received 50 injections from the Zakat fund, but the doctors were now saying that they were short of funds and could no more treat her.

"My wife still needs 22 injections to complete her full course. She was administered three injections per week. The cost of a single injection is Rs960, which is out of my reach," he said.

The Satellite Hospital receives Rs1.2million on yearly basis from the government, bulk of which is spent on deserving patients. Lately, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government had also started offering free anti-hepatitis C injections to deserving patients from Zakat fund.

"Now shortage of funds has hit hard the patients who were already getting injections. Most of the patients have received 20-40 injections," said a doctor at the hospital.

He said that last year they had provided free interferon injections and anti-viral capsules (ribiviron) to 50 patients, but this year they had registered only 10 deserving patients.

He said that they knew that the patients would be left with no option but to discontinue their treatment. He said that the cost of complete treatment was Rs60,000 which was almost out of the reach of poor people.

Khalid Khan, 14-year-old school student, said that he was getting free injections and capsules at one of the hospitals in the city. "Now, I have received 30 injections, but shortage of Zakat fund at the hospital has disappointed me," he said, adding that his father, being a labourer, was unable to bear the expenses.

He appealed to NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah and Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani to order free treatment for him. Another person said that he had received 26 injections from Zakat fund, while the rest of the injections weren't available to him due to shortage of fund.

"I requested the hospital authority that he would get the injections from the medical store and the hospital should pay to the store when the funds become available. But they refused," he said.

Meanwhile, a source at the provincial Zakat Department said that Rs500,000 would be released next week and treatment of the hepatitis patients would get underway. However, a doctor at the Satellite Hospital, said that they would provide free injections only to 10 patients. It would enable us to provide complete dosages to them.