Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that hepatitis is a fatal disease. However, people can remain safe from this disease by following quality health principles and adoption of necessary precautionary measures. It is, therefore, needed that people should be given all necessary information about safety measures relating to the hepatitis disease.
Shehbaz Sharif in his message issued on World Hepatitis Day has said that the purpose of celebrating this day was to provide necessary awareness about this disease to the people in an effective manner. He said that the Punjab government was engaged in an organized campaign to sensitize the general public through mass media.
Meanwhile, Punjab government has also provided sufficient resources for the eradication of hepatitis. For the first time in the history of the country, the Punjab government initiated a programme to provide free medicines of hepatitis B and C to the registered patients through courier service. It is sanguine that provision of necessary medicines to the patients at their doorsteps was a revolutionary initiative and it was the commitment of the provincial government to further expand this programme.
He said the government has initiated a special campaign to control this disease and therefore Punjab Hepatitis Control Programme was being moved forward in an effective manner.
He said that Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute and Research Centre were being set up in Lahore and hoped that this institution would prove a milestone initiative in the field of kidney & liver transplantation, where liver patients will have all the latest treatment facilities under one roof. He said that the pioneering state-of-the-art hepatitis filter clinic is providing medical facilities to the people in the provincial metropolis and such clinics are also being established in all the districts of the province. He further said that effective steps were needed to be done continuously to control the hepatitis disease.