Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Hepatitis cases rising at an alarming pace

ISLAMABAD: The number of hepatitis B and C patients are increasing in the country day by day.Punjab is the worst-hit province where the patients of hepatitis have increased by 6.7 percent, whereas Sindh stands at second position with the ratio of 5 percent within a calendar year. In Balochistan this rise was recorded at 1.5 percent and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it is 1.1 percent. Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination has also confirmed that HCV virus is increasing in the country. Daily Times has got documented evidences that reveal that the total number of Hepatitis C patients were 37,253, whereas the number of hepatitis B patients was 10,122 in 2014.

On the other hand it touched the figure of 46,898 regarding hepatitis C, whereas the patients of hepatitis B have reached 11,956 in 2015. Only 3,117 hepatitis patients were cured in 2014, similarly just 5,758 were given treatment in 2015. The documents say that 179,000 people were administered the anti-hepatitis vaccinations during the last three years. When State Minister Saira Afzal Tarrar was contacted, she said after the 18th Amendment, the Health Department has been transferred to the provincial governments, however the ministry is providing all kinds of assistance to the provinces.

She said the federal government has provided the cheapest medicine of hepatitis in the world to its patients, as nine local and two international pharmaceutical industries were registered to get rid of this deadly disease. She told this scribe that to save the general public from hepatitis and to control the viral infection, the government in collaboration with the provinces has constituted several technical advisory groups, which would start a mass awareness campaign regarding hepatitis throughout the country soon.

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