KARACHI: Health experts at a seminar marking the World Hepatitis Day on Wednesday said Pakistan was the world’s sixth largest country with moderate to high level hepatitis infection rates.

The seminar was organised by the Ziauddin University aimed at spreading awareness about different types of hepatitis. It focused on the barriers in hepatitis cure and the importance of screening and early diagnosis.

“The objective should be prevention of hepatitis through capacity building and training,” said Dr Zaigham Abbas. He said the prevalence of hepatitis B was around 2.5 per cent and hepatitis C was 4.8pc in the country.

Also read: No attention paid to World Hepatitis Day

Dr Abbas also spoke on a WHO framework for development of an effective hepatitis prevention and control programme with focus on educating the masses, improving health care systems and creating political interest in the initiative. The needs for training for the medical staff for early detection of hepatitis and eradicate the taboos associated with hepatitis were also highlighted.

The experts spoke on risk factors such as unsafe blood transfusions, reuse of syringes, injections and use of non-sterilized equipment.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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