LAHORE: As many as 50,000 people have been diagnosed with Hepatitis C in Punjab over the last six months, confirming that Pakistan has the second highest prevalence of the deadly disease in the world.

“That is why we are taking several measures to combat the disease which the World Health Organization wants to eliminate by 2030,” said a senior official of the Punjab government on Sunday.

According to him, the efforts included the elaborate ordinance on how to prevent and treat the disease which has recently been promulgated in Punjab.

According to the official, the provincial government arranged 50 hepatitis and health camps across the province in the past six months to detect how many people were suffering from the “silent killer.”

Out of the over 600,000 screened people, nearly 50,000 were found contracting hepatitis. These people did not know that they were suffering from the disease. And the government started their treatment because hepatitis could be cured if detected at an early stage.

The patients included police, hospital staff and provincial government servants for whom special screening camps were also held.

Officials say as per the 2008 international data, six to seven per cent of Pakistani people suffer from hepatitis.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that can cause liver disease that ranges from a short, mild illness to a serious, lifelong condition.

Multiple use of medical syringes is one of the chief causes of Hepatitis C transmission. In order to counter this, Punjab is the first province in Pakistan to introduce a policy to ensure that public health facilities use auto-disabled (single use) syringes. This year, 50pc of syringes in THQs/DHQs in Punjab have been replaced by auto-disabled syringes that have been procured from leading manufacturers of syringes around the world, an official says.

Following this, a third-party assessment of auto-disabled syringes will be conducted to ensure that they are being used in the correct manner and the expected benefits are being realised. This number will be increased to 90pc by next year. Coupled with this, a programme to improve infectious waste control has also been launched.

The government also aims to regulate and increase the uptake of auto-disabled syringes in the private hospitals and medical facilities in the future.

Another risk factor that is being addressed by the Punjab government is the spread of Hepatitis through barbers and salons. Cuts caused by contaminated instruments such as scissors, clippers and razors are a major source of spread of Hepatitis. Under the Hepatitis ordinance, the Punjab government has launched a campaign to initially raise awareness and register barbers and salons.

“Moving forward, the aim is to disseminate a set of safety and hygiene protocols, and ultimately launch a licencing programme to ensure that these protocols are followed by the registered barbers and salons. The campaign was recently launched successfully in Kasur, and the plan is to scale up this initiative up to all districts across the province,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2017