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Hepatitis
B and C Endemic to Pakistan
Pakistan is an
endemic country for both hepatitis B and C. Roughly five per cent of Pakistanis
are carriers of hepatitis B and the figure for hepatitis C is even larger. These
findings were disclosed during the opening day of the 4th Annual Meeting of
the Pakistan Society of Hepatology, held at Hotel Pearl Continental, Karachi,
on September 3 2004.
The theme of this two-day Congress is chronic viral hepatitis.
National and international
speakers attributed the rising incidence of hepatitis B and C to poor awareness
and lack of basic health care and screening facilities. Speakers in the morning
session pointed to the multiple use of disposable needles and syringes, substandard
transfusion services, quackery and poor dental health care. The experts stressed
that if blood banks were better organised, syringes were discarded properly
and dental treatment was performed with sterilised equipment, incidence of the
two diseases would decline dramatically.
Participants were informed
that the effective vaccine now available for hepatitis B should be administered
to all newborns on the day of birth. "If this were done, incidence of hepatitis
B would decrease substantially over the next decade or so," a speaker added.
"Otherwise the epidemic will persist in the long term and the population at
large will suffer."
The afternoon session was
dedicated to a symposium on the current management of hepatitis C. Leading physicians
maintained that if the disease is detected in time, chances of effecting a cure
with the currently available treatment, which is based on Interferon and Ribavarin,
stand at almost 80 to 90 per cent. This treatment is, however, expensive. "But
the disease cannot be cured if it progresses to the cirrhotic stage, and all
the complications associated with cirrhosis will develop over time," a speaker
said. "Emphasis, therefore, should be placed on timely diagnosis and appropriate
treatment."
Formally inaugurating the
Congress early in the evening, chief guest Professor Jan Mohammad
Memon, Vice Chancellor of Liaquat University of Health Sciences,
Jamshoro, stressed prevention aspects as well as the role of doctors
and health care facilities in Pakistan. This session, attended by
over 400 participants, was also addressed by Professor Sibtul Hasnain
Syed of Allama Iqbal Medical University, Lahore; Professor Mohammad
Umar of Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi; and Professor Wasim Jafri,
Dr Hasnain Ali Shah and Dr Shahab Abid of the Section of Gastroenterology,
Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.
All speakers reiterated
the need to improve the country's health infrastructure and urged both the government
and NGOs to play a larger role in the control of viral hepatitis. This was followed
by a symposium comprising two teleconferences with speakers in India and the UK who highlighted
various aspects of the treatment of hepatitis.
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