July 09, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1428

LAHORE, July 8: At least 30 districts of Punjab, out of the total 34, are under serious threat of hepatitis C, including the provincial metropolis, Dawn has learnt.

The Punjab health department, in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s National Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis, had launched a programme to provide free blood-screening facility to people of the province for detection of different types of the disease viruses last month.

PM’s national programme provincial coordinator Dr Abrar Baig told Dawn on Sunday that D G Khan, Muzaffargarh, Multan and Bahawalnagar were the districts where a surge in hepatitis B cases had been detected.

However, he said a thorough study on scientific grounds was required to determine the exact number of hepatitis A B C, D and E cases in all districts of the province.

Under the PM’s programme, Dr Baig said, injections of Interferon and Ribavarin for hepatitis C, and vaccine and tablets Lamvidne for hepatitis B were being provided free of cost to public health facilities of Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Gujrat, Sahiwal, Okara, Faisalabad, Khanewal, Multan, D G Khan, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Attock, Narowal and Bahawalpur. In the remaining districts, he said, the PM’s national programmme was being launched this year.

Dr Baig said the programme had helped reduce prevalence of hepatitis B and C viral infections at baseline level among vulnerable sections of population — health care workers, thalassemic, hemophilic children, intravenous drug users, persons on long-term dialysis and prison inmates.

He said prevalence of hepatitis viral infections had also been reduced at baseline levels among children and adult population.

“The health facilities provide medicine and vaccine to only those patients who are registered with them,” he said. The programme was catering to the medical needs of only 7,500 such patients, he added.

The objective of the five-year (2005-2010) programme is to improve the health status of the people by reducing the incidence of hepatitis viral infections and lowering their vulnerability to the ailment through the implementation of sound preventive and control strategies.

According to a World Health Organisation study, about 10 million people in Pakistan are suffering from hepatitis. It says that out of the five types of the disease, hepatitis A and E are waterborne while B and C are transmitted through blood.