PESHAWAR, Sept 5: Doctors say that the reuse of syringes and transfusion of unscreened blood could cause a rise in cases of hepatitis. "Our rough estimate suggests that about 25 million people of the country are hepatitis carriers.

Nearly three million people, who visited public sector hospitals, have been tested positive for hepatitis B or C. The number might be catastrophic if the entire population was screened," said Pakistan Medical Association president Dr Umar Ayub Khan, while talking to Dawn here.

He said that according to the data compiled by the association the prevalence of hepatitis was just over 11 per cent last year, but it was increasing at an alarming rate during the current year.

A study conducted by the World Health Organization in five districts of the NWFP revealed that 30 per cent of the cases of hepatitis B and C were because of injecting the same syringes to many patients by unqualified medical practitioners, said WHO's Peshawar-based emergency medical officer, Dr Quaid Saeed.

He added that no data was available with the WHO about hepatitis level in Pakistan. Even the government health department does not have this information because of inadequate data collection.

Transfusion of unscreened blood at blood banks was also a reason for the spread of hepatitis, said Dr Khan. Unqualified doctors, who run health clinics by bribing health officials use substandard and unsterilised syringes, he said, adding that effective legislation on use of syringes was important. Patients go to unqualified doctors because they could not afford high fee, he said.

Dr Khan claimed that the locally manufactured substandard syringes used by the non-qualified doctors, specially in rural areas, were cheap and 10 syringes could be bought for the price of one high quality syringe.