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In Pakistan 9 million with HCV, 5.6 million with HBV
9m suffering from hepatitis C in Pakistan, Senate told
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Saturday, March 07, 2009
Islamabad
thenews.com.pk
The Senate was informed on Friday that around 8.8 million people in Pakistan are suffering from deadly hepatitis C while another 5.6 million are affected by hepatitis B.
In written reply to a question, minister for health Aijaz Hussain Jhakrani said the figures have been compiled by a recent sero-prevalence study conducted by Pakistan Medical Research Council.
"The quantum of hepatitis C and B are 4.9 percent and 2.5 percent respectively," the minister added.
He said the availability of diagnostic facilities and awareness campaigns have un-earthed the hidden burden of the disease.
The Prime Minister Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis was launched in August 2005 with a total cost of Rs2.594 billion for a period of five years.
The number of patients with the disease since then have increased manifold as the government started to provide free treatment, though on a limited scale.
When the programme was launched in 2005-06 the number of patients, most of them poor, who were registered and treated at government hospitals were 10,815 and 1,000 for hepatitis C and B respectively.
For the year 2008-09 the figure is 84,773 and 7,204 respectively for the two categories of the disease. Free treatment is restricted only to the poor patients through financial support provided by Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Zakat and Ushr departments.
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