FAISALABAD - Like other parts of the country, World Hepatitis Day will be observed in Faisalabad on May 19 (tomorrow) will zeal and gusto. The World Hepatitis Day is an annual event that each year provides international focus for patient groups and people living with hepatitis B and C. It is an opportunity around which interested groups can raise awareness and influence real change in disease prevention and access to testing and treatment. It is to be noted that the World Hepatitis Alliance first launched World Hepatitis Day in 2008, and since then over 600 events have taken place around the world, generating massive public and media interest. The Alliance has also received support from governments worldwide, high-profile Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and supranational bodies, such as Medicines sans Frontiers but unfortunately no Pakistani government has yet paid any proper attention on the issue. Resultantly as per various reports each person out of ten in Faisalabad is suffering from Hepatitis disease of different types like Hepatitis A, B, C, D or E. The main reason in this regard is polluted water, illegal industrial poisonous water discharge and environmental pollution. This was reason that the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 10 million people are suffering from Hepatitis in Pakistan. Dr Muhammad Khalil Billay, (world health organization), WHO country representative, told international media some months ago that there were five types of hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. The A and E types are transmitted because of water problems and C, B, and D are blood related diseases. The government was going to launch a nationwide programme to control the disease, he said. The programme aims at providing Hepatitis-B vaccination to every newborn child in the country. Some doctors of Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources said that contaminated water was the main cause of the disease. We have started work on a national water quality programme, he said. Shaving material, blood transfusion equipment and used syringes were other causes of the disease, he said. Around four to five million people in Pakistan are suffering from Hepatitis B and about four to six million suffer from Hepatitis C. Faisalabad due to industries located inside the jurisdiction of the city was one of major hit city in Punjab and other than off some others of other provinces. It is important mention that according to a survey conducted by Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) in 2009, the prevalence of hepatitis B antigen among healthy population of Pakistan is 2.5 per cent while hepatitis C is 4.9 per cent. Hepatitis can be defined as the inflammation and necrosis (the affected cells become oxygen deprived) of the liver cells by the action of viruses named Kypfer cells. Hepatitis is either acute self-limited or persistent or recurrent that causes chronic inflammations and leads to hepatic cirrhosis that is cancer of liver. It mostly leads to death but the stage comes rarely in patients who take proper treatment, studies reveal. The major causes of HCV infection worldwide are use of unscreened blood transfusions and re-use of needles and syringes which have not been adequately sterilized. HCV is a major cause of acute hepatitis and chronic liver diseases. Studies reveal that hepatitis C virus infection is the leading cause of cirrhosis, considered as the end-stage liver disease. Most of the people develop distension of abdomen due to accumulation of water, many present with vomiting of blood as the veins in the food passage rupture due to raised pressure of the portal circulation. As a complication of the disease, a number of patients develop disturbance of mental function and go into coma. Health experts fear that cirrhosis of the liver which takes around 15-20 years to develop would emerge out as the leading cause of death in future and vomiting of blood, and coma might claim greater number of lives within next five to seven years. Hepatitis C is one of the ten leading infectious diseases causing death worldwide and according to a rough estimate, nearly 250,000 deaths per year can be attributed to HCV. However different walks and seminars would be organized on Hepatitis day but practically nothing would be done. Provincial and district administration should take appropriate steps to control increasing ratio of hepatitis.