PESHAWAR, June 14: Experts have called upon people to avoid multiple injections and prefer oral medication to be safe from contracting hepatitis.

“Re-use of syringes, piercing of ear and nose, shaving at barbers’ and transfusion of unscreened blood are the main factors causing hepatitis B and C,” said Dr Masoodur Rehman at a seminar held on the occasion of screening and vaccination of local journalists at the press club on Thursday under the Prime Minister’s Programme for Control and Prevention of Hepatitis. He said the patients preferred injections over oral medication, which increased the chances of hepatitis.

He said the monthly cost of hepatitis treatment was Rs40,000 and prevention was the best option.

Dr Ihsan Turabi, Coordinator of the Prime Minister’s Programme, said that more than 1.1 million people suffered from the disease in the NWFP.

He said six million people suffered from hepatitis B and 7.5 million from hepatitis C in the country.

He said the programme was being extended to more hospitals in the province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Haematologist Dr Fazle Raziq said that government had supplied kits to blood banks to ensure safe transfusion services across the province.

Provincial Health Minister Inayatullah Khan said funds had been received from several sources for the treatment of the disease.

“The disease has social, economic and political repercussions. The better option is prevention,” he said, adding that the provincial government had allocated Rs2.3 million for a campaign to raise awareness about the disease.

He said that the provincial government had spent Rs10 million on the treatment of hepatitis patients at the Lady Reading Hospital. Some 500 patients had been treated from the Zakat fund.

“We have the capacity to provide treatment to 6,000 patients per year, but the disease is more prevalent in the province because of the existing risk factors,” he said.

Mr Khan asked the authorities concerned to collect data about the hepatitis patients who didn’t need injections but other types of treatment. This, he said, would give an idea about the patients who were at terminal stage and what they required.

The five-year (2005-10) programme is designed to provide treatment, raise the level of awareness about the disease, install water filtration plants and incinerators, put in place medical waste management systems at hospitals and train health professionals.