KARACHI: A recent official survey shows that around three million hepatitis carriers are in the province who include over two million people with hepatitis C and around a million with hepatitis B, said officials in a meeting held at Chief Minister House.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presided over the meeting with Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, information adviser to the CM Maula Bux Chandio and senior officials to review the progress on the vertical programme on hepatitis.

The officials informed the CM that the figures of hepatitis patients almost remained unchanged since the programme was launched in 2009 at the cost of Rs2.7 billion, with the objective to take preventive and curative measures and create public awareness.

In 2009, said an official statement citing the briefing, there were over three million hepatitis patients in Sindh.

In 2011 the programme was extended further for another three years, 2011-2014, at a cost of Rs3.315 billion.

Secretary health Saeed Mangnejo said around 8,608,400 people in the province had been given hepatitis-B vaccine so far which included 2.9 million general public,1.9 million high risk population, 170,001 newborns as first dose, 87,538 jail inmates, 3,488,708 schoolchildren, 194,000 people in flood-hit areas, 6,540 haemophilic dialysis patients and 10,201 drug injecting users.

Programme manager Dr Khaliq Shaikh said under the programme 462,365 patients had received treatment and 154,405 of them were hepatitis-C patients, 14,636 hepatitis-B and 3,638 hepatitis-D patients.

Apart from it, he added, 26,418 patients were under treatment, including 17,890 of hepatitis-C, 88,347 of hepatitis-B and 181 of hepatitis-D.

He said that under the programme 300,000 schoolchildren were vaccinated in September and October last year while their third doze was due in February. He said they had also vaccinated 2,165 jail inmates recently.

The health minister said under the programme 20.7 million auto-destructible (ADs) syringes had been provided to districts to promote the use of AD syringes and discourage the recyclables. “To create public awareness, 154 awareness sessions have been conducted in jails and sub-jails.

He said he had worked out a plan to establish a molecular lab at Benazirabad district, while more such centres would be set up at the taluka hospitals of different districts.

The CM asked the health department to increase screening provision and mobilise teams at grass-roots level for arranging hepatitis screening and vaccination camps, particularly in the high risk areas.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2016