1.44 million people die of hepatitis C in country: study

In Pakistan, almost 1.44 million people die of hepatitis C (HCV) infection and 48 percent of them are younger than 50 years, disclosed a study carried out by the Pakistani medical experts based in America. As per the authors of the study Dr Fasiha Kanwal and Dr Naveed Janjua, the situation is alarming in Pakistan and the responsible have to undertake a number of steps in this regard. The study was published in renowned Journal of American Medical Association.
They said in Pakistani population, infection dynamics are havocs in terms of preventable deaths and health related costs expected to be incurred. "Moreover, 25 million people would need to be screened every year to diagnose 900,000 hepatitis C virus infections and 700,000 patients would need treatment as well," they added.
The medical experts observed that to achieve HCV elimination in Pakistan, its testing would need to be scaled up to at least 25 million people per annum which would help in this regard. They disclosed that compared with status quo, the elimination scenario would avert 323,000 liver related deaths and 13 million HCV associated disability cases from 2018 to 2030. "Elimination scenario is expected to be associated with cost savings of US $2.6 billion from 2018 to 2030," they added.
Referring to Pakistan, medical experts said that as per WHO guidelines hepatitis will be eliminated and the targets have already been given, but unfortunately this is one of the high HCV virus countries in the world.
"The Punjab government has prepared guidelines with Sustainable Development Goal's 2030 to eliminate hepatitis. Hepatitis clinics have been established with the required human resource at all the autonomous teaching and medical institutes in Punjab. Moreover, medicines and diagnostic kits have been made available at the sentinel sites and up till now more than 12,000 patients have been treated at these centres," they observed in the study.
The medical experts said that spread of HIV is an eye opener for all of us and apart from the government everyone, especially the doctor community, has to play an effective role to eliminate HIV and HCV from the society.