KARACHI, July 22: A group of hepatologists, headed by Prof Wasim Jafri, stressed the need for undertaking research in the field of hepatic diseases and prepare a representative data with a special reference to hepatitis.

They were speaking at a press conference that was arranged at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday in connection with the formal launching of the Pakistan Society for the Study of Liver Diseases (PSSLD).

Some research studies on hepatitis had been made in the country, but those were small in nature as far as the scope, population and areas were concerned, they mentioned.

Prof Jafri, the chairman of medicine department at the AKU and the president of the PSSLD, accompanied by other office-bearers, including Prof Saeed Hamid, general-secretary, said that hepatitis existed in the country as viral epidemic, and could be prevented only through the integrated efforts made by medical practitioners, policy makers and media people.

He said that 10 to 15 million people were suffering from hepatitis in the country. He said that the PSSLD would hold a World Hepatitis Day seminar on July 28 at the Aga Khan University Hospital for pubic awareness and interaction among hepatologists and other specialists.

Answering a question, he said that the prime minister’s programme on the elimination of hepatitis was a good initiative, but there was still room for improvement in the execution of the programme. Some sorts of research works and monitoring of blood transfusion centres and education of masses on the subject should be incorporated in the programme, he noted.

Other speakers, including Prof Saeed Hamid, Dr Ashfaque Ahmed and Dr Tariq Mumtaz, expressed the view that poverty, lack of education, lack of baseline disease data, unsafe practices by physicians and facilities, unsafe drinking water, transfusion of unscreened blood and use of used syringes, were included among major factors contributing to the increase in hepatitis diseases.

They admitted that there was a need to bring awareness about hepatitis and its modes of transmissions at the level of general physicians working both in the public and private sector so that they diagnose and manage the disease appropriately.