Meeting On Hepatitis Prevention & Control Programme Held

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Jun, 2021 ) :Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Sindh, Dr. Azra Pechuho on Friday chaired a meeting on Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme in Sindh.

The meeting was attended by Parliamentary Secretary Health, Secretary Health and Director General (DG)Health.

The programme has established treatment centers at district and tehsil level teaching hospitals, where screening, vaccination, diagnostic and treatment services were provided. Also available through this programme were cold storage facilities as well as warehouses for storage of resources needed for logistics and medicine.

Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur have FCR (Hepatitis screening) Tests provided and utilized free of cost. Since the initiation of the programme, over 9.044 million people have been vaccinated for Hepatitis B and 4230 screening and vaccination camps have been set up across the province.

To have a more holistic awareness drive regarding viral hepatitis diseases, the program team has created campaigns that target electronic as well as print media, conduct awareness seminars, school sessions, muhalla (neighbourhood) meetings and camps for the prevention and treatment of Hepatitis.

It was also discussed to involve maternity homes, RMNCH centers, all medical facilities that involve obstetrician services to provide prenatal screenings for Hepatitis B. Vaccinations for the same must be made available at all medical levels.

Those who have tested positive for tuberculosis must be screened for HIV and vice versa in order to increase tracing and create more efficient tracking of the trends of communicable diseases.