HYDERABAD, Jan 14 The number of hepatitis B & C patients in the province stood at 1.5 million and 1.7 million, respectively which was alarmingly high and needs to be tackled on war-footing, said Sindh Health Secretary Mohammad Hussain Syed.

He was speaking at a meeting held to implement the chief minister's programme on prevention of hepatitis-B and C at the office of the director-general of health services, on Wednesday.

Health EDOs, medical superintendents of teaching hospitals and civil surgeons attended the meeting.

Mohammad Hussain Syed said that Sindh took the lead in launching anti-hepatitis programme as its Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah was shocked at the rising incidences of hepatitis in the province.

He said that the first phase of the programme was under way with medicines and vaccine provided to all district hospitals worth Rs350 million. He said that now onwards complete treatment would be provided to all registered hepatitis-B and C patients at district headquarters hospitals along with providing sufficient quantity of medicines and vaccines to prisons in every district.

He said that a committee would be constituted to implement hepatitis prevention programme in prisons and medicines would be provided to prisoners already declared hepatitis with remaining to get treatment after their PCR tests.

He said that Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Dadu, Matiari, Nawabshah and Hyderabad districts were most affected and directed the EDOs of these districts to take prompt action for the prevention of hepatitis. He also directed the EDOs of Shikarpur, Jamshoro, Tando Mohammad Khan and Sanghar districts to be vigilant as their districts were also on danger list.

He directed the medical officers to ensure safe injections and sterilisation of invasive devices, safe handling of blood and its products as prevention. He directed them for developing functional linkages to create awareness among public.

Secretary Health informed the meeting that three PCR laboratories will be established at Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur with cold chain facilities at Kotri, Sukkur and Larkana.

He said that free hepatitis camps for vaccination and blood screening would be organised at different districts, besides capacity building of medics and paramedics for handling hepatitis cases according to national standard procedure.

He said that the present government was taking interest in providing health facilities to everyone through multidimensional strategies such as rooting out the causes of it by providing clean drinking water and cleanliness in the living areas.

Provincial Programme Manager, Dr Abdul Majeed Chhutto while briefing the meeting appealed to print and electronic media to play its role in creating awareness among masses and convincing them for adopting preventive measures.

LANGUAGE The leaders of civil society organisations have welcomed an awareness campaign launched by the Sindhi Adabi Sangat on the subject of “Sindhi language national language” and demanded that Sindhi language, which has a history of thousands of years, should be acknowledged as a national language.

In a joint statement Sindh Hari Porhiyat Council president Punhal Sario, Adam Malik of Actionaid, Ms Shaheena Ramzan of Bhandar Hari Sangat, Joint Action Committee leader Zain Daudpoto, Lala Hassan Pathan of Aurat Foundation and many others said that Sindh was heir to thousands of years old history and culture and Sindhi language was one of the most important languages of the world.

Sindhi language has been given the status of a national language in India but it was being meted out step-motherly treatment in Pakistan, they lamented.

They supported the decision of the Sindhi Adabi Sangat to submit a memorandum on the subject through postcards to President Asif Ali Zardari and appealed to the leaders of civil society, students, workers, haris and people at large to gather at the General Post Office Hyderabad on January 15 (today) to join the signature campaign being launched by the Sindhi Adabi Sangat, in this regard.