RAWALPINDI: Four union councils in the garrison city have stopped screening citizens for hepatitis B and C due to lack of test kits at health facilities in Punjab.
The screening of citizens is initiated by the Local Hepatitis Elimination and Prevention (LHEAP) program launched in Rawalpindi district by the District Health Directorate in collaboration with the Global Hepatitis Elimination Alliance.
The purpose of the program is to raise public awareness of this deadly virus, find out how much of it needs to be investigated to prevent it, and develop the best course of action to curb its future spread.
Four union councils in Rawalpindi launched the LHEAP program in collaboration with the US Organization Global Health Task Force to conduct hepatitis testing at the doorsteps of citizens, also conduct vaccination and treat patients free of charge.
It is estimated that the scheme has to cover over 1.50 lakh people in the fourth union councils of Rawalpindi, including Kyaban-i-Sir Syed, Satellite Town and Saidpur Road, as these union councils have been declared as high-risk union councils .
There are plans to extend the jurisdiction of the scheme to the entire Rawalpindi district.
However, hepatitis screening has been suspended for a week due to unavailability of hepatitis laboratory tests and rapid test kits, a senior official of the district administration told Dawn.
There is also a shortage of drugs to treat hepatitis C, which is causing problems for patients, he said. Currently, teams are vaccinating patients who have been missing for the past two months, he said.
He said the provincial primary and secondary health department informed that test kits would be received after October 20 and then supplied to the province’s Tehsil headquarters hospital and hepatitis-free projects in garrison cities.
At the same time, during the hepatitis screening carried out by the district health department in the city in the past two months, a total of 614 cases of hepatitis C and 143 cases of hepatitis C were detected, including 7 pregnant women.
When contacted, Dr Anser Ishaq, head of the Local Hepatitis Elimination and Prevention Program (LHEAP), confirmed to Dawn that hepatitis screening in the four union councils has been stopped due to lack of kits.
I expressed hope that the kits would be available within a week or two, and so far we have started vaccinating people who have missed out on the hepatitis B vaccine over the past two months. Screenings will begin soon, he said.
He said that currently, there are 757 hepatitis B patients with a population of 32,547, 14,982 patients have been vaccinated, 10,116 people have received the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine, and 4866 people have received the second dose of hepatitis B vaccine.
He said that under the scheme, medicines will be provided free of charge until the patient recovers. He said treatment has been started for seven hepatitis B patients and 138 hepatitis C patients. He said treatment was started after liver function laboratory tests were conducted in these patients.
Published at dawn on October 15, 2023