SIALKOT
The hepatitis and diabetic patients here have been suffering great ordeal due to unavailability of vaccine and insulin in the district and tehsil headquarters hospitals, rural health centres and basic health units.
The Health Department officials including DHO Dr Javaid Warraich have confirmed that hepatitis vaccine was not available in Sialkot district’s all the government hospitals for the last four consecutive months while insulin for the diabetic patients was not available there for the last one month.
Sialkot district has Govt Allama Iqbal Memorial Teaching Hospital Sialkot and Govt. Sardar Begum Memorial Teaching Hospital Sialkot, the THQ hospitals in Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur, 88 basic health units, 10 rural health centers and health dispensaries.
The hepatitis patients, most of them the poor, have allegedly been left at the mercy of officials of Health Department, which still remain unable to ensure early provision of the hepatitis vaccine.
Local social, religious and political circles have expressed grave concern over the situation. They have urged Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Gujranwala Commissioner Khawaja Shamail Ahmed and DCO Nadeem Sarwar to ensure early provision of anti-hepatitis vaccine in the larger interest of the patients.
According to the officials concerned, 3,200 hepatitis patients have been registered at the centre since its establishment in 2007.  They said that there was no anti-hepatitis vaccine and treatment at the centre for the last four months.
The DHO added that insulin was available in emergency wards of DHQ and THQ hospitals in Sialkot district. “We have repeatedly brought the nasty situation into the notice of the high-ups, urging them to ensure the early provision of anti hepatitis vaccine and insulin but to no avail,” he added.
He said that use of contaminated is the major reasons behind spreading of hepatitis in Sialkot district. He disclosed that most of hepatitis victims are youth between the age of 16 to 24 years, married and housewives and their children especially in the rural areas.
He said that the Health Department would soon launch an anti-hepatitis awareness campaign in the the urban and rural areas of Sialkot district.
Meanwhile, Daska-based Dr Farha Kamran said that “silent killer” hepatitis C is rapidly spreading in Sialkot region, adding that most of the people were found as the victims, carrying hepatitis C virus. The situation should be an eye opener and point of grave concern for every segment of the society, she added.
Addressing a seminar held at Daska, Dr Farha Kamran revealed that illicit sexual relations, unpurified water, junk foods, non-conducive environment, trash heaps and less care were the causes behind the rapid spread of the disease.