ISLAMABAD, March 4: Hepatitis is spreading at a fast pace in Pakistan and over the past 10 years it has assumed an alarming proportion, participants of a seminar on health awareness were told here on Thursday.

Though the exact magnitude of the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C is not known, blood screening data shows 2.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent positive results of HBV and C, respectively. The seminar was arranged by Al-Khidmat Foundation at a local hotel.

Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan assured the participants that the government was fully conscious of the problems associated with the spread of Hepatitis and was giving priority to suppress incidence of the disease through preventive intervention.

According to the statistics shared with the participants, average prevalence of HBV and C in health workers is 7.8 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively. Similarly the prevalence of HBV and C in the community at large is reported to be 4.2 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively.

Among the commercial sex workers, the prevalence of HBV is about 11 per cent, which is quite high compared to its prevalence in general public.

"This should be a clarion call for our parents and elders who must bear a great sense of social responsibility for the values, which our children and youth carry with them from the home and family to the workplace and society," the health minister said.

He said the health ministry was following global recommendations by providing free immunization against HBV as part of its routine immunization programme to all children under one year of age.

"This intervention, which is being supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, will ensure that all future generations of Pakistani children will be immune to HBV infection," he said.

In addition to this, the government had also taken proactive approach to deal with the problem by promulgating transfusion of Safe Blood Ordinance 2002 and using auto-disable syringes.

"The tidal wave of hepatitis can subside only if government and civil society act in unison with commitment," he said, adding that the government alone could not deal with this huge responsibility.

Earlier, Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami expressed his concern over the rapid spread of the disease. He said if the situation in the federal capital was so alarming despite better sanitation and hygiene conditions, then what to talk of the situation in other parts of the country, which lacked even the basic amenities.