August 21, 2006	Monday	Rajab 25, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Aug 20: Instruments not proaperly sterilised are being used in hospitals causing spread of many contagious diseases, doctors said.

Doctors at the Khyber College of Dentistry told Dawn that instruments were not being sterilised at the treatment centre of the college, which made patients prone to infectious diseases like hepatitis and Aids.

A doctor said instruments used by dental surgeons were spreading diseases because the instruments were used for hundreds of patients without sterilising them.

According to a study conducted by the WHO in Nowshera and Buner districts last year, 30 per cent of hepatitis cases were caused by use of unsterilised syringes and other equipment.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association, 10 to 15 per people in province were carriers of the disease, with reuse of contaminated syringes and equipment the main reasons. Even glass syringes are reportedly being used in the Khyber College of Dentistry. The same syringes are used the whole day, with seldom change of needles.

It was learnt there were no arrangements for patients to be tested for HIV etc before treatment.

A consultant physician at Khyber Teaching Hospital said around a quarter of beds in the medical unit of the hospital were taken up by patients suffering from hepatitis B or C.

District headquarters hospitals, civil hospitals and other government-run dental facilities lack required equipment and surgeons have to use the available instruments for different purposes. The use of unsterilised instruments is also causing diseases like hepatitis among surgeons and health workers at operation theatres.

“I have been undergoing treatment for hepatitis C which I contracted at the clinical laboratory of the hospital where I am working, said an operation theatre assistant. Similarly, a man who was operated upon for removing kidney stone was diagnosed with hepatitis B.

“Before the surgery, the surgeon advised me hepatitis test, which was normal. But later, I was diagnosed with hepatitis B,” said 25-year-old Raees Khan of the Mardan district.