HYDERABAD, April 27: The medical experts have said that Hepatitis was common in Sindh and stressed the need for taking preventive measures, including screening blood to help identify people infected by Hepatitis.

They were speaking at the sixth annual symposium organized by the Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology and G. I. Endoscopy, Sindh Chapter, in collaboration with the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences at a local hotel on Sunday.

They attached great importance to screening of blood and proper use of laboratory equipments to contain the spread of Hepatitis B and C, and added that vaccination of new-born babies would help protect them from becoming a chronic Hepatitis carrier.

They said that government hospitals lacked adequate and effective medicines for Hepatitis.

The chief of gastroenterology and chairperson of the department of medicine, Aga Khan University, S. M. Waseem Jafri, said that if newly-born children got infected with this virus even through their mothers, then they would remain carriers of this virus for the rest of their lives.

Speaking on the topic of “safe and effective prescribing practices in management of chronic Hepatitis”, he pointed out that the virus always damaged the liver and in the majority of cases people died of it.

He said that vaccination of newly-born children during the first year of their birth was necessary to avoid more carriers of this deadly virus.

He was quite critical of the reuse of disposable syringes by general practitioners in the city and rural areas.