KARACHI: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday said every fifth death in Sindh was being caused by hepatitis B and C, or related complications, and 20 to 25 per cent population was infected with the deadly viral disease.

It was also revealed that in some areas of the province including parts of Karachi and most of the coastline of Sindh, around 30pc to 35pc people had been found infected with viral hepatitis. The areas in Karachi included Gadap and Kathore.

Speaking at a consultative gathering to observe World Digestive Health Day 2018 by Pakistan GI and Liver Diseases (PGLDS) at a hotel, leading gastroenterologists and hepatologists estimated that at least 20 million people in Pakistan were infected with hepatitis B and C amounting to 10pc of the country’s population but that ratio of people with viral hepatitis was much higher in Sindh.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the target of elimination of hepatitis B and C from the world by 2030 but keeping in view the state of affairs in Pakistan, Sindh in particular, it seems to be a far cry,” said Dr Shahid Ahmed, consultant gastroenterologist and patron of PGLDS in his presentation.

He said the government and private sector would have to make collaborative efforts on war footing to contain and eradicate it as it was easy to screen, diagnose and treat viral hepatitis these days.

Dr Ahmed said thousands of people were annually dying in the prime years of their age in Sindh whose lives could be saved by proper screening and treatment, “which is now very cost-effective, easy, and in the financial range of most people.

“Most patients of viral hepatitis never know about their disease until it gets into the chronic stage and badly damages the liver. If they are screened and diagnosed earlier, these patients can be properly treated and viruses of hepatitis B and C can be eliminated from their bodies.”

He offered complete support of his organisation in elimination of hepatitis B and C from the province, saying Sindh health ministry could seek their support and collaboration in elimination of the viral disease.

“We have hundreds of consultants and postgraduates who can help in containing it and its eradication.”

Dr Sajjad Jamil said Pakistan had the second highest number of viral hepatitis patients after China. However, he added China had reduced the number of hepatitis B patients to only one per cent through affective vaccination while in Pakistan “nobody knows the actual number of hepatitis patients”.

“Tablets are available which can cure this disease up to 99pc and these drugs have negligible side effects,” he said, adding that the real challenge was to know the actual number of infected people and convincing them to get treated.

Dr Lubna Kamanai demanded the government make hepatitis screening certificate mandatory to be filed at the time of issuance of CNICs to citizens to know the actual number of patients infected with viral hepatitis in the country.

She also asked the government to arrange free screening of hepatitis B and C, which would allow people knowing whether they were infected as most of them were not aware about it till they turned chronic patients.

Registrar of Dow University of Health Sciences Dr Amanullah Abbassi said the Sindh government had not wound up the Hepatitis Control Programme.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018