KARACHI June 7: While condoling the death of UC Nazim from Gadap Town, who recently expired of Hepatitis-C, the City Council in its Saturday’s session expressed concern over the rising number of deaths caused by the deadly disease.

The members of city council, including Qazi Saddrudin, Siddique Rathore, Abdur Razzaq, Razzaq Sanghani and Rukhsana Bano condoled the death of Jam Sohrab Khan, who was the Nazim of UC-2 of Gadap Town. They pointed out that the UC-1 Nazim of the same town had also died of Hepatitis-C.

They called upon the health department of city government to conduct a survey in this regard, especially in Gadap and Bin Qasim towns to find out the reasons for high rate of deaths being caused by the deadly disease.

They also stressed the need to initiate a free Hepatitis-C vaccination campaign for all residents of Karachi. For this, they called upon the convener of the house Muslim Pervaiz to summon the EDO Health, Dr Ali Nawaz Sheikh in the house.

Noor Hasan Jokhio, Ghulam Hussain Talpur, Mehronisa Baluch and Younas Khan said that under an estimate up to 45 per cent of the residents of Gadap and Bin Qasim towns were infected with Hepatitis-C. They said that it was a serious matter of concern for the whole of Karachi.

They also deplored the Town Health Officers (THOs) of these towns, who could not compile any monitoring report on the serious situation in their respective towns.

The members said that water samples from all slum areas of the metropolis should be tested on regular basis. If any sample was found contaminated, they said, its use should be immediately stopped.

They strongly criticized the Water and Sanitation Department, which had remained unable to ensure the standards of potable water being supplied to the city. The members also asked for initiation of an awareness campaign regarding cleanliness especially in slum areas of Karachi.

Engineer Abdul Aziz highlighted that one of the major reasons for spread of Hepatitis-C at alarming rate was unhygienic disposal of hospital wastes.

He said that the city government owned two incinerator plants, but even the city government’s hospitals were not sending their hazardous waste to the incinerator plants for proper disposal.

Riaz Tabbassum, who is the chairman of a health committee in the council, said that each viol of Hepatitis-C vaccine costs about Rs385. Considering the huge cost, he informed that it was not feasible for the city government to administer three doses to a population of about 10 million.

However, he said that the city government in collaboration with the UNICEF had launched a programme in Karachi, where all children up to the age of two years would be administered Hepatitis-C vaccines along with other doses under the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

Later, the council members offered prayers for Jumman Darban, UC Nazim from Orangi Town, who is also suffering from Hepatitis-C. The council approved two resolutions condoling the deaths of Jam Sohrab and Aziz Khan. The proceedings of the house will remain suspended on June 9 to mourn their deaths. — PPI