The Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme (HPCP), Sindh (S), is going to introduce a new treatment for hepatitis patients throughout the province, it was learned on Thursday.
The HPCP Sindh, was launched in 2009 with the objective to take preventive and curative measures and to launch a public awareness campaign to control the prevalence of hepatitis. When the HPCP was launched there were approximately three million hepatitis patients.
Program Manager HPCP (S) Dr Abdul Khaliq Shaikh, while talking to PPI, said that the programme had successfully vaccinated 8.4 million people against hepatitis throughout the province since the its start. He said that the health department has decided to shift hepatitis patients from injection to medicines under the new initiative.
He said that the old injection method was a very outdated and painful procedure; therefore, they have decided to introduce a new treatment via tablets. He said that this method has already been successfully implemented in various countries of world.
He added that a tender notice will soon be issued for the purchase of the tablets and that the patients will gradually be shifted to the new treatment. He said that with the new treatment people will be rid of the pain of the last treatment which used to last for six months.
He also said that they were currently providing treatment facilities to 14, 968 hepatitis C patients, 9,985 hepatitis B and 935 hepatitis D patients. He said that about 61 sentinel sites were providing treatment facilities to hepatitis patients across Sindh. He said two new hepatitis treatment centres will be established in Chachro Taluka of Tharparkar and Ibrahim Hyderi area of Karachi soon.
