LAHORE - The Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) organised a conference at a local hotel on Saturday to devise a Hepatitis Prevention and Control Strategy.
Physicians, medical practitioners, educationists, government officials and public health officials attended the conference where presentations were made by a panel of experts from Pakistani institutions including, Pakistan Research Council, National Transfusion Authority, Aga Khan University and major medical institutions. Prof Saeed Hamid of Aga Khan University headed the panel of experts. They deliberated and defined the extent of the serious challenge that Hepatitis C poses to the health of the nation and recommended measures on how to stop the spread of the disease.  The event started with Prof MaqboolArshad, Chair of the APPNA Hepatitis C Committee giving a brief introduction of the work that APPNA is doing and stressing the importance of physicians taking up the fight against Hep C and becoming advocates and mechanisms of change for the patients.
Prof Saeed Hamid chaired the session, starting the presentations with a detailed background of the spread of the disease in Pakistan as compared to other nations and explaining the risk factors associated with Hepatitis C. He talked about how the problem can escalate out of control if strong measures are not taken immediately to counter the spread of Hepatitis C.
Dr HumaQureshi of the National Research Council removed misconceptions commonly associated with the spread of Hepatitis C. She stressed that one cannot be infected with Hepatitis through the exchange of food and drink but only through blood and body secretions. Therefore the government needs to take measures to prevent spread through unscreened blood transfusions, unsafe injections and invasive devices. Currently, only 23% of blood banks screen for HCV. This number needs to increase drastically if any improvement is to be made.
Dr Hassan Abbas Zaheer and Maj Gen (Retd.) Suhaib Ahmed spoke about blood banks, universal blood screening, centralized data base establishment and introduction of quality control of all available testing kits. They explained how the right kind of investment of money and resources can lead to innovative techniques to effectively screen for Hepatitis so that it is not transmitted through blood transfusions, needles etc.
Prof Arif Siddiqui of Allama Iqbal Medical College and Prof Masood Siddiq of Foundation Medical College spoke about the role of the government in combating Hepatitis C and placing adequate measures in place to regulate hospitals and their waste management. The consensus was that even though legislation has been defined, implementation is the biggest hurdle with hospital staff and practitioners not being trained to enforce said legislation.
The presentations were followed by a Q&A session where audience asked presenters to provide more explanations and made suggestions of their own. The meeting was adjourned on the hopeful note that more awareness would lead to steps being taken to combat the spread of Hepatitis and protect the nation from this very preventable disease.
Book fair: Post Graduate Medical Institute will organise a book fair and fun fair on March 19 (Tuesday).
Chairing a meeting held here on Saturday, Principal of PGMI and Lahore General Hospital Prof Anjum Habib Vohra said that books written by renowned authors on all topics would be available at the fair on subsidized rates. He said that the objective of this event was to develop book reading habit among the students and to aware them about their great asset of knowledge. Prof Vohra further told the meeting that a fun fair would also be held where food stalls and recreational activities for the students would be organized. Prof Fauzia Farzana, Dr Bushra Suhail and Dr Sharjeel Ilyas attended the meeting.