LAHORE: Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and Lahore General Hospital (LGH) Associate Professor for Medicine Dr Israr-ul-Haq Toor has said that the treatment of Hepatitis C with tablets is more result oriented and successful than the use of injections.

"Hepatitis B and C is a rapidly spreading disease which occurs due to carelessness, ignorance or dietary issues," he said while addressing a ceremony to observe the World Hepatitis Day 2020 here on Sunday. The situation is spiralling out of control due to non-adoption of precautionary measures while increasing deaths due to jaundice is also a matter of concern, he added.

According to the professor, people usually do not get their blood tested due to lack of awareness and consider their hepatitis as a stigma and hide their disease which gradually becomes fatal. He said that when a patient is brought to the hospital, it is often difficult or even impossible for the doctors to treat him/her. He added that timely diagnosis and treatment of the hepatitis patient is the only possible way to cure.

"Almost 20 million people across the country are suffering from hepatitis," he said and urged the people to take hepatitis C seriously and avoid taking sleeping pills and cough syrups as such medications would cause a serious harm.

He said the symptoms of hepatitis A include loss of appetite, irritability, fatigue, yellowing of eyes and the colour of body besides restlessness. He said if the test for hepatitis in pregnant women turns out positive, then the disease can be transmitted to children during motherhood.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020