Drugs shortage still persists at hepatitis centres

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI- Shortage of medicines in the Hepatitis Centres of Sindh Hepatitis Prevention & Control Programme across the province continues unabated, causing grave concerns among newly-registered patients.

According to sources, Sindh health department has, so far, failed to overcome shortage of the medicines despite knowing that treatment of hepatitis B, C and D was quite expensive and as such poor and lower-middle group people could not afford.

They feared that that lives of patients suffering from different types of hepatitis would be at risk if the shortage of medicines continues unabated.  
Wishing not to be quoted, an official of Civil  Hospital Karachi’s (CHK) Hepatitis Centre said almost all hepatitis centers across the Sindh have been facing acute shortage of the medicines required for patients suffering from hepatitis B,C and D.
The worst sufferers in the wake shortage of the medicine are those who have recently registered with the hepatitis centres of CHK, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Qatar Hospital and Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad as they have no choice but to wait for vaccine and injections.

“In fact, hepatitis centres have not been getting cent per cent supply since long,” he claimed.

Another official of Sindh Hepatitis Prevention & Control Programme said that Karachi was getting its required supply and all old registered hepatitis patients were getting medicine and injections on regular basis.

He, however, conceded that hepatitis centres in the interior of Sindh were not getting their actual quota of medicines. 
Provincial Manager of Sindh Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme, Dr Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, could not be reached for his comments over the persisting shortage of the medicines.