Hepatitis C Strikes Back in Pakistan; Says WHO
by Naba Batool
SHARES
A report was published by the Prevention & Control of Hepatitis Programme in Punjab Province. This report clearly made several eye-opening revelations. It went on to highlight that the largest province of Pakistan has failed to develop the proper strategies to tackle the disease. This report was dispatched in March to the concerned authorities.
It was clearly mentioned in the report that the overwhelming patient-dropout in Punjab can lead to increased transmission of Hepatitis C virus as well as Hepatitis B virus. This spread can put the health of millions of people at risk.
WHO has also declared that Pakistan has the second-largest Hepatitis C virus load in the world. This aggressive spread is because of a number of factors such as poor social well-being understanding and degraded healthcare practices in the region. All such things account for the need for proper arrangements that can slow down the progress of this virus in the region.
It was highlighted in the report that the program has currently spent around 4 billion funds while only a few thousand patients have been treated.
This data is far away from all the numbers that the WHO has put forward for the global control of the Hepatitis C virus. “However, currently, as per the project data, an annual average of treatment of HCV cases is around 64,000 HCV cases /year that makes only around 8pc of the actual target i.e. 812,900 HCV cases/year”.
Furthermore, the need to stay updated and cautious is always there and apparent. Thus the government needs to take initiatives in these regards.
