Islamabad:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday called for coordinated efforts by federal and provincial governments and all stakeholders to eradicate Hepatitis C from Pakistan and promised to promote and expand PM’s hepatitis C Eliminating Program nationwide.
Recognizing the significant support of the Aga Khan Development Network and the World Health Organization (WHO) In this initiative, he said that the hepatitis unit was originally established by the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) and was later expanded to provide 100% free treatment facilities.
The Prime Minister expressed regret that when the new government took office in 2018, the program was discontinued.
However, he said that shortly after taking over the Prime Minister’s office, he resumed the program, which was now operational in Punjab under the leadership of chief minister Maryam Nawaz.
“We see a bright future of Gilgit-Baltistan and subsequently other parts of Pakistan,” he said, who expressed confidence that Hepatitis C with the efforts of the current government’s efforts will soon be deleted completely from the country.
“This aggressive disease is spreading. This is high time to effectively control this disease,” he noted.
The prime minister said that the collection that the federal government was in the process of establishing the Jinnah Medical Center in Islamabad, which would prove to John Hopkins Hospital in Pakistan in Public Health Care.
Previously, he distributed shields among the contributors to the Pilot Project in Gilgit-Baltivity including Minister of Health Services Syed Mustafa Kamal, Prime Minister DR Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharat, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Nadra chairman, as representative of Pakistan and others.
When he spoke to the occasion, Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that Pakistan had the highest spread of hepatitis C and called it a question of great concern.
He said that the success of the hepatitis program manifested the model of the Public-Private Partnership and also the coordination between federal and provincial governments.
He said the government hoped to remove the disease 2029, when the Prime Minister’s Hepatitis C relimization program will not only save millions of lives but also help increase the country’s economic productivity.
Minister of National Health Syed Mustafa Kamal, who praises the Prime Minister’s vision of eliminating hepatitis C from the country, assured him his full support to successfully eliminate the disease from the country by 2030.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Pakistan Dr. Lou Dapeng said the organization will continue to stand side by side with Pakistan in supporting his program to completely eliminate the disease.
