KARACHI, Oct 31: Pakistan with an estimated number of seven million carriers of Hepatitis B needs to initiate an comprehensive vaccination campaign against the disease at all levels.

Health-care experts reminding that Hepatitis B and C have emerged as global health problems said Pakistan constitutes five per cent of the worldwide 350 million people figured to carry Hepatitis B virus.

The situation, they said, places an enormous burden not only on the government but also on the patients who are compelled to spend millions of rupees on medical care, which largely remain unsatisfactory in the face of limited treatment options available.

Prevention of the disease through timely vaccination was cited as the most preferable alternative, particularly as Hepatitis B can almost completely be prevented by providing vaccination against the infection very early in life, preferably in the first week after birth.

This is again significant as there is also mother to infant transmission of the virus which occurs at the time of birth or just after.

Meanwhile, 95 percent of infants who acquire the infection very early in the life become chronic carriers of Hepatitis B.

According to doctors, if the infection is acquired in the first year of life, it results in chronic liver disease and hepatocellular cancer in adolescents.

Although less than 10 per cent of the patients acquiring the infection in adult life may turn into carriers, however, all individuals in general and those at high risk as health care workers, phlebotomists, dentists, paramedics and nurses in particular must be vaccinated against Hepatitis B.

The disease could be also be considerably prevented through safe blood transfusion, use of disposable needles and syringes, safe disposal of hospital waste besides application of sterilised surgical and dental equipment.—APP