KARACHI, May 8: More than 900 police personnel in Sindh have been diagnosed with hepatitis B and C since 2009. Of them, 258 patients have now been tested negative for the disease after treatment, provided free by their department.

Considering the gravity of the situation, the Sindh police department has recently launched a comprehensive screening for both forms of hepatitis with a treatment programme.

The high number of hepatitis cases, however, indicates the scale of the damage that has already been occurred due to poor health services available to the police and an acute lack of awareness of the disease in the force.

According to an estimate, 500 to 700 policemen receive injuries while 50 to 60 are killed every year in the province.

Speaking to Dawn , Dr Roshan Ali Bhatti, medical superintendent of the police hospital, Karachi, said that 911cases of hepatitis B and hepatitis C had been registered since 2009. Apart from those tested negative after treatment, another group of about 270 patients would complete treatment soon and is expected to test negative for the disease.

Explaining why the blood-borne infections were so prevalent in the police force, he said, “Apart from lack of awareness, malpractices and medical negligence at health facilities where injured policemen are immediately referred to could be major reasons for this problem.

“Using medical equipment without sterilisation is a common practice especially when the hospital staff is handling a large number of injuries at the same time,” he said, adding that the two police hospitals in Sindh, the one in Karachi and the other in Hyderabad, earlier hardly met the needs of the staff had recently been renovated and upgraded.

The treatment cost for hepatitis B and hepatitis C could vary between Rs100,000 and Rs1 million, he said.

The drive, to end on May 10, is the first comprehensive hepatitis screening for police personnel whose total strength is 115,000 in the province, according to Sher Ali Jakhrani, heading the AIG Welfare Sindh police office.

“The Sindh IG has directed policemen of all cadres to get their blood tested. The staff testing positive would be provided free treatment,” he said, adding that vaccination for hepatitis B had also been planned for the unaffected.

An understanding had been reached with the Dow University of Health Sciences, the Rahila research and reference laboratory and the PNS Shifa hospital for the purpose, he said.

“The DUHS lab only operates in Karachi, so we have to contact another laboratory that is functional in the interior areas of Sindh as well. Serious cases would be referred to the PNS Shifa hospital for treatment,” he said.

So far, 20,000 samples had been collected for test, he said.

According to health experts, in many cases of hepatitis B and C, patients do not have any symptoms. And those who have symptoms may experience appetite loss, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, itching all over the body, pain over the location of the liver (on the right side of the abdomen, under the lower rib cage), jaundice (a condition in which the skin and the whites of the eyes turn yellow), dark urine (the color of cola or tea), pale stools (grayish or clay colour).