Patients left in the lurch as hepatitis medicines not available in Tarn Taran

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, July 4

The non-availability of medicines of hepatitis B and C diseases in the district for over the last two months has become a cause for concern for patients. This shortage has put officials of the Health Department in a fix as they are unable to answer the queries of patients and their families in this regard.

According to the official reports, there were 150 patients of hepatitis B and 450 of hepatitis C in the district. Civil Surgeon Dr Gurpreet Singh Rai said the district had the stock of medicines of hepatitis, B but for hepatitis C, the stock had exhausted two months ago.

Dr Rai said information in this regard had already been dispatched to higher officials. He expressed hope that the stock was expected to be made available here. Dr Rai said the stock of hepatitis C medicines had exhausted throughout the state.

There were reports in the state, especially border districts, that people were suffering from hepatitis B and C diseases, the underlying reason being reuse of infected syringes by rural practitioners and common use of syringe by drug addicts.

These diseases are highly infectious and result in jaundice, cirrhosis (liver failure), cancer. It is a death sentence for those affected. Experts said the non-availability of these medicines was like a crime on the part of the department as well as the government.

The situation is more worrying at the Central Jail, Sri Goindwal Sahib, where there were 450 hepatitis B patients out of the total 1,700 inmates. On the other hand, the stress-buster report is that the medicines are provided to the patients in the jail on priority by the department.