September 20, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 26, 1427

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ATTOCK, Sept 19: The use of the recycled syringes has become major source of fast spreading hepatitis B and C in the country. This was stated by District Monitoring Officer Health Attock district, Dr Muhammad Afzal Mirza while talking to a forum of Central Union of Journalists here on Tuesday evening. The forum was held to discuss the root causes and preventive measure to control the fast spreading deadly disease of ‘Hepatitis B.

Dr Afzal said that the used disposable items like syringes, catheters, NG tubes, gloves used in operations, drips and swabs could not be disposed of and the companies reused these items as raw material for the preparation of new ones.

Health department has installed incinerators for the disposal of used items mostly in the main hospitals, but despite the presence of these incinerators, most of the times these risky items reached the hands of scavengers who sold them to the traders of these items from where they reached to the companies through the hands of the businessmen who used them again in the making of these items, he observed.

It was the state responsibility to impose the existing laws regarding the matter and rid the people of the menace, while NGOs, health organizations and other stakeholders should launch awareness programmes at their own levels about the causes and prevention measures of this silent killer disease among the masses, he urged.

About Hepatitis B, he said that the disease was hundred percent curable. “It targets the human liver directly and can give rise to many serious complications like cirrhosis and liver cancer,” he added.

Dr Afzal showed deep concern over the Hepatitis B and C patients’ attitude about avoiding edibles, which were otherwise beneficial for health and strengthening their immune system.

He said it was observed through various health surveys and reports that the ratio of Hepatitis B and C is being increased at alarming proportion every year in the country due to such careless attitude of the people and other stakeholders,” he claimed.

Moreover, the lack of diagnostic facilities had rendered many persons unable to know that they were suffering from hepatitis B and transmitted the disease to others unknowingly, he added.