Beware of hepatitis

World Digestive Health Day 2018 was commemorated on May 29 by healthcare professionals in Sindh by holding a forum to discuss the prevalence of the main suspect causing liver disease across the province. Hepatitis B and C have been named to occur in approximately 20 per cent of Sindh’s population.

In some areas of the province, the rate of incidence is 35 per cent of the population, such as near the coastline and parts of Karachi. These are alarming numbers because in approximately a decade, the WHO seeks to globally eradicate hepatitis B and C. Already proving to be an insurmountable goal for Pakistan, gargantuan leaps will have to be made, preceded by meticulous planning by the health ministry over the next couple of years.

Physicians aver that solutions to hepatitis elimination exist in the form of a simple pill that can cure up to 99 per cent of the virus. However, they have also informed that the difficulty lies in reaching patients with hepatitis. This is where the health ministry needs to make tremendous improvements vis-à-vis enforcing hospitals and clinics of all sizes to report cases of hepatitis. The ministry’s job is to maintain a centralised database and reporting by healthcare professionals should be as simple as one short phone call to result in instantaneous updating of the system. Of course, this also requires responsible reporting by healthcare facilities to the governing agency. Provincial health ministries should then be made to report to the federal health department so that better statistical record keeping is maintained to inform the public and professionals alike, and overcome age-old diseases rather than having them turn into epidemics every time.

Finally, we will be able to make adequate progress if hygienic practices are emphasised and enforced to mitigate spread of disease in public spaces, especially at small restaurants and tea stalls, which would also serve as ideal locations for data collection. It is time for our health department to stop being lazy and commit to some aggressive fieldwork.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2018.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.