Viral hepatitis in Pakistan: challenges and priorities

• Published in: Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
• Main Authors: Sadia Ashraf, Aftab Ahmad
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015
• Subjects: Hepatitis; Prevalence; Treatment; Laboratories; Risk groups; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(15)30004-6; https://doaj.org/article/332df1e61349487db7d18be02526e4d3

Hepatitis B and C are big health issues worldwide as more than 400 million people are suffering from chronic hepatitis B and C which result in more than 1.4 million deaths each year. According to a study done by Pakistan Medical Research Council in 2007-08, 7.6% Pakistani population suffered with hepatitis B and C, with around 4.8% with hepatitis C only. Government of Pakistan has taken different initiatives like vaccination, patient safety, blood screening, education and awareness about disease but still there is high prevalence of hepatitis in Pakistan. According to some studies injecting drug users have the highest prevalence of hepatitis B and C in the country. The follow-up studies and documentation of hepatitis patients was not very good which need to be improved. There is no recent large scale study on risk factors and prevalence of hepatitis B and C in Pakistan so it should be done on an urgent basis. If government set up regional laboratories for prevalence study and also a central institute for hepatitis research and treatment, the disease could be prevented in better and proper way. The treatment of hepatitis is very costly and a developing country like Pakistan cannot afford such high costs. Therefore more focus should be on preventive measures.