RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Steering Committee meeting of Pakistan Kidney & Liver Institute (PKLI) met here Friday, to evolve a unified strategy for elimination of hepatitis in the province in line with the Punjab government’s hepatitis control program and global health strategy on viral hepatitis.

The meeting noted that all the stakeholders should work in synergy for early enactment of Punjab Hepatitis Prevention and Control Act. This will provide implementation of policy on all aspects such as hospital waste management, dialysis, auto destructive syringes, and use of sterilized instruments and vaccination of exposed and vulnerable segments of the society.

The health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique highlighted the importance of the PKLI’s project and stated that in view of complex situation of hepatitis prevalence, we feel there is a need for an independent structured program and legislative framework for healthcare professionals of Pakistan where the latest findings of hepatitis are translated to daily clinical practice based on local and international key opinion leaders, focusing on local and regional challenges and solutions.

Dr. Saeed Akhter mentioned Pakistan can take benefit from the experience of other nations like Egypt and Georgia, who have been successfully combating hepatitis. He added the PKLI is being planned to operate laboratory section under structured code of network that will cater to the growing number of hepatitis patients in far flung areas across Punjab. This robust database is being planned under sentinel sites of state-of-the-art PKLI & RC.

Khawaja Salman Rafique and Prof. Dr. Saeed Akhter ensured that uniform policies and protocols with respect to diagnosis and treatment are vital in line with the subject of making hepatitis free Pakistan.