Chandka Medical College Hospital needs a new PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine to test for hepatitis after its old one burnt down in March.
Chandka Medical College Hospital is the largest teaching hospital in upper Sindh and serves people from Shikarpur to Mirpur Mathelo.
Dr Abdul Majeed Chutto, who is the programme manager for the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme, has promised a replacement.
In Pakistan, there are an estimated seven to nine million carriers of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chandka needs to perform hundreds of tests in a month.
For example, in March alone, 652 PCR tests were done, out of which 288 people tested positive.
Larkana is known to have a high rate of the hepatitis B virus and March data shows 59 out of 120 tests came positive.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2011.
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