HYDERABAD, Jan 22: Sindh Health Services Director-General Dr Abdul Majeed Chuttho has disclosed that the supply of hepatitis-C vaccine, interferon, under the prime minister’s programme has been stopped since July last year and 2,500 hepatitis-C patients are waiting for treatment.

He was addressing a news conference at his office on Tuesday after assuming the charge of director-general health services of Sindh.

He said that estimated cases of hepatitis-B are 1,500,000 while 1,800,000 are hepatitis-C cases.

According to him there are 7,000 registered hepatitis-C patients and out of which 4,200 have been treated. While, he said, 2,500 patients are awaiting treatment because of non-supply of hepatitis-C vaccine under the prime minister’s special programme.

He said the health department had approached the Baitul Maal and district governments for provision of vaccine and it had got a positive response from them.

He, however, said that 45,000 hepatitis-B vaccines were available with syringes and 85 confirmed cases of Delta virus among hepatitis-B patients were reported.

“Estimated cases of Delta virus are between 23,000 to 25,000,” he disclosed.

About dengue fever he said that 2,329 cases were reported in the country in 2006 and out of them 1,577 were the confirmed cases. He added that out of 50 dengue fever deaths, 46 were reported in Karachi, three in Hyderabad and one Umerkot.

He said that hepatitis is largely caused by the quackery that could effectively be controlled through promulgation of an ordinance by the Sindh governor because Sindh doesn’t have any quackery specific law to curb this practice.

Regarding polio cases, he said that 12 cases were reported in Sindh.

He also pointed out that according to a World Health Organisation report mostly the religious minded people refuse to administer polio vaccines to their children.

He said the health department had approached Jamaat-i-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman in this regard. He said that each polio round costs Rs3 million.

He said that 6,529,483 are the targeted children of under-five-year of age out of the total population of 39,432,722 of Sindh. Between 1997 and 2007, 1,714 confirmed polio cases were reported in Pakistan, he said.

Under routine immunisation, he said, 1,432,716 children were vaccinated.

The director-general said that during the recent riots following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the Sindh health department had suffered Rs1 billion losses in terms of torching of its vehicles, ambulances, rural health centers, basic health units, director-general health directorate and in other miscellaneous heads.

He also gave break-up of vehicles damaged and burnt in the province.

The director-general further said 1,823 posts are vacant while 191 posts of paramedics from BPS-1 to BPS-16 out of which 16,607 (male), 3304 (female) and 2082 posts are also vacant.

He said 16,000 lady health workers are working in Sindh. He informed that 213,993 cases of dog bite and 3939 cases of snake bite were reported in Sindh in 2007.