KARACHI: The Sindh government has announced to wrap up its Hepatitis Control Programme and said that instead it would provide funds to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) for screening, diagnosis, and treatment of Hepatitis C patients in the province. “Today, we have signed an agreement with Aga Khan University Hospital, under which we would provide Rs219 million to the network for the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of thousands of Hepatitis C patients. Initially, this will be done in Larkana and Nawabshah districts,” Health Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho said on Monday. He was speaking at a ceremony where the agreement was signed between the government and AKUH chief executive officer Johannes (Hans) Theodorus Kedzierski. Dr Pechuho announced that the government had decided to end its Sindh Hepatitis Control Programme, saying that funds allocated to the programme in the Annual Development Programme would now be given to the AKUH for the eradication of the disease from the province. According to AKUH officials, Pakistan has the second highest incidence of Hepatitis C, after China, and, as per some conservative estimates, 20-22 million people in Pakistan are infected with Hepatitis B and C. Dubbed as a ‘silent killer’, Hepatitis C is a viral infection of the liver and it spreads through infected blood and exchange of some other body secretions, but most of the people infected with the virus remain oblivious of the disease until it irreversibly damages their liver and ultimately causes death. Dr Pechuho said that initially the AKUH would screen, diagnose and treat patients in Larkana and Nawabshah districts, and in the later stages, more funds would be provided to the healthcare network to extend the service to other districts, including Mithi, Shikarpur, Khairpur and ultimately Karachi. Giving reasons for selecting the AKUH for taking over the tasks, he said the programme had failed to yield positive results and there were issues with its management, due to which it was decided that the government should enter into a partnership with Aga Khan Hospital for the treatment of Hepatitis C patients. “Sindh Hepatitis Control Programme was not yielding positive results, despite huge funding. We heard reports that people were getting medicines for a month but then they would stop getting the treatment. This was also resulting in resistance and other complications for the patients and bringing a bad name to the government.” On the other hand, Kedzierski said they were working with the government as well as with NGOs in Sindh and other provinces to help in capacity building. He added that the partnership with the Sindh government for the elimination of Hepatitis C would benefit not only the people of this province but also those living in other provinces of the country as data collected through the programme would be used for research purposes. He maintained that the AKUH had the best team of liver disease physicians and surgeons at the moment, and, with their help, the organisation would try to manage Hepatitis C and work on its prevention, which was the best available strategy to eliminate the viral disease from the country. Published in Daily Times, May 8th 2018.