ISLAMABAD, June 4: The Senate standing committee on health on Wednesday expressed deep concern over widespread prevalence of hepatitis in the country and called for urgent action to reverse the tide.

“People are dying daily and we are watching helplessly.

This is high time to wake up and take urgent steps as the pestilence has already assumed an alarming proportion,” said the committee members in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Abdul Razak A. Thahim on Wednesday.

The committee noted the fact that treatment is lengthy as well as very expensive and the situation in the rural and far-flung areas was particularly pathetic.

In Sindh alone, there are more than two million patients whereas NWFP and Fata have nearly 2.2 million hepatitis patients.

The committee directed the ministry of health that instead of holding elitist seminars and symposia in five-start hotels on prevention of diseases like hepatitis, gastro and polio etc, and wasting national resources, it should focus on mass awareness programmes.

Senator Dr Khalid Soomro said the contributing factors were yet to be controlled effectively. Water filtration plants installed earlier are not working in their full capacity and many of them are out of order.

He said safe blood transfusion continued to be a dream. Similarly, hospitals waste management leaves a lot to be desired. In such a situation, prevalence of the disease is natural.

The Senate body also took exception to the reports that senior doctors in government hospitals generally did not attend OPDs. In many cases their staff members were found luring poor patients to come to the doctors’ clinics in the evening.

The meeting directed the coordinator National Hepatitis Control Programme to undertake a visit of all the four provinces and see facts for himself. The members said it was not being carried out in the desired manner and there was much room for improvement.

Reacting to reports that treatment of hepatitis cost nearly Rs50,000 for a patient, the committee directed the ministry to include one or two members of the Senate committee on health in their drives for procuring more funds especially during negotiations with bodies like WHO, Unicef so that these also have the support of elected representatives of the people.