KARACHI – After much lobbying and swaying opinions through the media, officials of the Sindh Health Department on Thursday managed to get the provincial government to extend the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme for another three years – a project that will cost Rs 5 billion.
The last three-year term, worth Rs.2.70 billion, was set to expire soon, and the Health Department had recently started hepatitis screening of different areas to prove the efficiency of the programme. For the first time, media trips were also arranged to Gadap, as officials sought to convince the people through the media that the lives of many citizens were in danger due to hepatitis.
“The chief minister (CM) has agreed in principle to extend the CM’s Initiative for Hepatitis-Free Sindh for another three years. The extension has been granted in an attempt to encompass the remaining and remote areas of the province with the necessary facilities of screening, vaccination and treatment,” read an official handout issued after CM Qaim Ali Shah’s meeting on Thursday with Health Department officials.
The CM told participants of the meeting that the Health Department’s draft law for regulating private clinics and hospitals was under active consideration, and a decision will soon be taken on the issue. A law is to tie school admissions with vaccinations will also be discussed, the CM said, whereby a certificate guaranteeing that a child has been vaccinated against polio and hepatitis will have to be produced.
The CM also stressed the need to encourage precautionary and preventive measures regarding Hepatitis; he urged organising seminars, symposiums, walks and rallies to create awareness among citizens. He said that a programme to this effect was also initiated from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, but till now, no scheme had been launched. The CM directed the authorities concerned to claim Sindh’s funds share by contacting the relevant authorities in the Federal government.
