RAWALPINDI, June 22: Use of unsterilized endoscopes in private hospitals and clinics is causing spread of hepatitis, hospital sources revealed.

A microbiologist told this reporter that sterilization of endoscopes using freshly prepared solution required a minimum of 30 minutes. However, she stated, doctors generally overlooked this requirement and resultantly caused spread of the virus.

Interviews with other doctors revealed that  doctors in private clinics did not expose endoscopes to disinfectants frequently enough, because it tends to reduce the life and quality of the lens in the equipment.

Doctors perform an average of 15 to 20 endoscopies during less than five hours of private practice. With a minimum of 30 minutes needed for sterilization of endoscopes after every use, it is obvious that the requirement is ignored by private practitioners, for which patients have to pay dearly.

A medical practitioner, who was suspected to have contracted hepatitis during an endoscopy, said many of the patients who were advised endoscopy suffered from hepatitis. Unsterili-zed equipment spreads the virus to other patients.

He said it was regrettable that an invasive procedure like endoscopy with potential adverse affects and complications, was being used indiscriminately and unethically by the doctors who just wanted to mint money.

Doctors revealed that endoscopy was so frequently advised by private practitioners that there was now a joke in the medical community that Chandni Chowk and Haideri Chowk should be renamed as “Endoscopy Chowks”, because anybody passing through these crossings could hardly avoid being advised an endoscopy.

They further disclosed that there were only three qualified gastroenterologists in the area that once formed the Rawalpindi division. However, most of the physicians because of the lucrative returns in this field have christened themselves gastroenterologists.