THE medicines used to treat Hepatitis C are not available at centres run by the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme across the province for several months now as the health department has failed to deliver drugs.

Thousands of newly screened Hepatitis C patients have been put on waiting lists all over Sindh.

It is a shame that hospitals such as Dr Ruth Pfau Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and other government hospitals are not being provided with adequate medicines.

The hepatitis centre at the civil hospital was registering nearly 40 to 50 new patients every day and has been put on hold due to a shortage of drugs.

Hepatitis C patients in Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and other towns of Sindh have been advised by their doctors to buy medicines from private medical stores rather than hepatitis centres in hospitals.

The shortage of drugs has adversely affected the programme’s performance as the treatment of hepatitis patients is very costly and a large number of patients cannot afford treatment.

Mir Abdul Munam Al Majeed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2019