Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that first phase of 100-bed Pakistan Kidney, Liver & Research Institute (PKLI) will start functioning by the end of this year. He was speaking at a seminar collectively arranged by the Primary and Secondary Health Department and Pakistan Kidney, Liver & Research Institute (PKLI) to observe World Hepatitis Day. The institute will be completed at a cost of Rs 20 billion, he said. The hepatitis treatment and filter clinics are being set up in all the 36 districts, he added.
The provincial government is taking disease control program seriously and concrete steps have been taken for prevention of hepatitis and provision of diagnostic as well as treatment facilities to the patients free of cost. He said that hepatitis filter clinics are being set up across the province where free diagnostic and treatment facilities are being provided to the patients. Minister Primary & Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir said that hepatitis screening of 125,000 people were conducted in the camps set up throughout the province out of which 110,000 were administered hepatitis B vaccine. Presently, 20 million people are infected by hepatitis B and C in Pakistan, he said.