LARKANA, Nov 23: Cases of hepatitis B and C are on the rise in the mountainous belt of Sindh. The situaiton demands urgent and extensive measures to check the outbreak of the disease.

Health officials engaged in evaluating and eradicating the disease told Dawn on Thursday that the virus had travelled from central Asian states and through Afghanistan it reached Balochistan and inflicted the people in the Khirthar range.

The Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology estimates that in Sindh there are 1.5 million and 1.8 million cases of hepatitis B and C. The national prevalence of the disease, according to conservative estimates, is 3.5 per cent (B) and between four and five per cent (C), the sources said.

Dr Farooq Soomro, who has been working in the Khirthar belt, said that the illness was fast rising owing to unawareness.

Dr Zulfikar Gorar, the focal person of the prime minister's programme of hepatitis in Sindh, said the disease was attaining alarming proportions in the region.