ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the poor state of public health in the country and an alarming increase in the number of patients suffering from pneumonia, diarrhoea and Hepatitis C.

Why was the government not taking serious efforts to address this alarming situation, observed Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan who headed a three-judge bench hearing a suo motu petition about deaths of children, especially in rural areas, because of pneumonia and diarrhoea, and an alarming increase in the number of people suffering from Hepatitis C.

The apex court regretted that deaths by fatal diseases had surpassed by 98 per cent compared to two per cent by terrorism-related incidents.

Take a look-editorial: Children’s health

It took the suo motu action on the application of a resident of Mansahra, Sheraz Mehmood Qureshi, in which he invited the apex court’s attention towards the worrying state of affairs in the health sector.

The applicant had enclosed two columns that appeared in an Urdu newspaper — one written by Orya Maqbool Jan on Nov 13 and the other by Javed Chaudhry on Nov 19.

Justice Ejaz Afzal narrated his personal experience when as a judge of the Peshawar High Court he visited the Peshawar Prison and noticed that Hepatitis C was very common among inmates, saying that it had rather turned into an epidemic like situation.

“When inquired what treatment is being provided to prisoners, the jailer told me that medicines for the treatment of Hepatitis C are very expensive and the budget allocated for the prison cannot allow them to purchase them,” he said.

Referring to an application submitted by a private drug manufacturer — Everest Pharmaceuticals — to become party in the case, the court sought a report from the federal government to address how far the claim of the applicant had a ring of truth.

Represented by Advocate Khawaja Mohammad Farooq, Everest Pharmaceuticals claimed that it had succeeded in manufacturing a drug for the treatment of Hepatitis C which could be made available to the public at competitive price of Rs116 per tablet called Sovir (Sofosbuvir).

According to it, similar medicines by other manufacturers are being sold at the market for Rs1,178 per tablet.

The application said the company had applied for registration of the medicine with the Drug Registration Authority of Pakistan (Drap) in June last year but the authority delayed the registration of the drug which prompted the manufacturers to move the Lahore High Court (LHC) and succeeded in getting a direction for the registration of the medicine within four weeks. It claimed that the authority was delaying the registration of the medicine at the cost of the poor patients despite clear directions of the LHC.

According to the drug manufacturer’s application, more than 4,000 people die on daily basis in Pakistan due to Hepatitis C as its treatment is inaccessible by a large number of people. It says there are more than 20 million patients of Hepatitis C in Pakistan.

“We are concerned why impediments are being created,” the court regretted, saying that every third person in the country was suffering from Hepatitis C.

The court cited a media report that Drap was resisting local manufacturing of drugs for the treatment of Hepatitis C because a son-in-law of a sitting federal minister was in the business of importing medicine for the cure of this fatal disease.

“Even if these are mere allegations, no contradiction have ever been issued,” the court observed and issued notices to the respective federal as well as the provincial director general health and chief operating officer of Drap as well as the federal secretary health with a direction to submit a report on the issue and provide an input whether the locally manufactured drugs were useful for the treatment of Hepatitis C.

The court also sought replies about the procedure of the registration of the pharmaceutical drugs and the types of diseases and their medicines as well as what preventive measures could be taken to effectively combat the ever increasing fatal diseases.

Justice Ejaz Afzal express concerned over reports that oral polio vaccines and syringes which were provided to the government in aid were often landed in the open market. The court desired inputs from the federal and provincial governments on the allegations.

The SC will take up the case again after three weeks.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2015