Pakistan bears highest burden of Hepatitis C in the World

Liver cancer fastest growing type of cancer due to high prevalence rates of viral hepatitis, experts

KARACHI:

Surpassing China and India, Pakistan is marked with the world’s largest population of patients living with Hepatitis C.

Despite the government’s commitment to eliminating the disease of Hepatitis by 2030, the prevalence of Hepatitis C has steadily increased to the point that currently there are nearly 10 million Pakistanis today living with viremic Hepatitis C, who need to be diagnosed and treated.

According to details, in 2020, over 461,000 new cases of Hepatitis C were added to the pool, a higher incidence of new cases than in any other country.

These statistics were revealed by leading epidemiologist Dr Homie Razavi from the Centre for Disease Analysis (CDA) in the United States at the 16th annual conference of the Pakistan Society for the Study of Liver Diseases (PSSLD) in Karachi.

Dr Razavi runs the Polaris Observatory, the world’s largest database on viral hepatitis.

Renowned doctors, Prof Amna Subhan, Prof. Saeed Hamid from Aga Khan University Hospital, Dr Wasim Jafri from South City Hospital, and Prof Zaigham Abbas from Ziauddin University Hospital were present on the occasion.

Speakers at the conference highlighted the damage caused by the unchecked spread of Hepatitis C, as a result of which liver cancer is now fastest-growing cancer in the country.