LAYYAH, Nov 22: Hepatitis has become an epidemic in Layyah district, especially in the riverside areas, according to Health Department officials. Two youth died of the disease in November.

District Physician Dr Zafar Iqbal says according to Health Department surveys, more than 12 per cent of the district population is suffering from jaundice and the number is on the rise. The population of the district is estimated at 800,000 to one million. This month, 18-year-old Nadir Iqbal, of Basti Kangal, and 18-year-old Muhammad Arif, of Basti Kaar Bhada, died of hepatitis. Both villages fall in riverside where the disease is spreading like an epidemic.

After the death of Nadir Iqbal, local general physician Dr Javed Iqbal conducted the blood work of other family members and found seven of the 10 people hepatitis positive. The patients include a 75-year-old man and a 11-year-old boy.

Dr Javed Iqbal has conducted the blood work of 44 people, and of them 33 are hepatitis positive.

“The situation is very alarming,” he said. The government has not arranged potable water for the most affected areas.

Recently, the Punjab government announced a ‘Clean Water Project’ under which six districts, including Layyah, will get a filtration plant for every house.

There has been no doctor in the Basic Health Unit (BHU) of Summra Nashaib for the last two months and the BHU building was also damaged in the River Indus flooding in the summer, Dr Iqbal says.

The district physician said they were registering the patients and would vaccinate them. He cited illiteracy, usage of used syringes and contaminated water the major causes of the disease.

Executive District Officer-health Muhammad Iqbal Bhatti said 30 per cent of the population of Basti Kangal and Kaar Bhada was suffering from hepatitis.