LAHORE, March 2: Federal Minister for Health Muhammad Naseer Khan has announced constitution of a task force to recommend ways and means to control hepatitis, polio, tuberculosis, Aids and other diseases in the country.

The minister was speaking at a health awareness programme on liver and gastro-enterological diseases, organized at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday.

He told newsmen after the meeting that the task force with representatives from all the four provinces would be constituted within a month.

He said that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali had announced establishment of liver transplant facility at Karachi. He said that a similar facility should be established at Lahore as well.

He said that the government believed in prevention of the diseases by creating awareness about the causes of the same. He said that water was the biggest carrier of diseases.

The late chairman Mao Tse Tung had advised the people to use water after boiling.

The minister said that the government could not provide healthcare to the entire population and wanted the private sector to participate in the process. The government also wanted improvement in the health education standard.

He said that the doctors should not shun groin to the rural areas. He cited the example of India where the young doctors were awarded degrees after they had served in the rural areas for one year.

About the handing over of the Nursing Institute building to the University of Health Sciences, the minister said that the government would take a decision in this regard in the light of the report of Shaikh Zayed Hospital’s Board of Governors.

LCCI’s former president Dr. Khalid Javed Chaudhry said in his welcome speech that about 17 million people were suffering from hepatitis in the country which could have been prevented by provision of safe and clean drinking water.

A former surgeon-general of the Pakistan Army, Dr. Muhammad Saleem, said that hepatitis was caused by viral infection. He said that about 2.5 per cent population of the country was infected with hepatitis B and 4.1 per cent with hepatitis C.

He said that mass vaccination for prevention of hepatitis was not advisable but all high risk groups should be vaccinated. He said that no vaccine was available for hepatitis C so far.

He pointed out that hepatitis B vaccine, imported by the Expanded Programme on Immunization, had cost only Rs19 per doze but different organization had been charging Rs400 to Rs415 per doze.

Liver transplant expert from Singapore National University Hospital Prof. K. Parabhakar said that liver transplant was possible in Pakistan.

He said that Singapore government had provided one million dollars for subsidizing liver transplant operations.

Prof. Zaigham Abbas from the Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, said hepatitis was caused because of inflammation of liver following the use of drugs and alcohol.

Poor sanitary conditions and contaminated drinking water were also instrumental in causing hepatitis. The diseases could also be transmitted by the syringes used by infected people.