Get free thalassaemia, hepatitis C medicines at Karnal Civil Hospital

Tribune News Service

Karnal, January11

Patients suffering from thalassaemia and hepatitis-C have started getting medicines free of cost at the Civil Hospital. As per the authorities, the move will help keep a record of such patients, which was difficult to maintain earlier as patients bought medicines from stores outside the hospital.

Earlier, patients suffering from hepatitis-C and thalassaemia were referred to the PGI Rohtak; PGI, Chandigarh or some other district where the medicines were readily available, said Dr Yogesh Sharma, Civil Surgeon.

As many as 721 patients of hepatitis-C were referred to PGI, Rohtak last year. As many as 43 patients have been enrolled so far ever since the facility was started last week.

“We have at present 320 bottles each of Sofosobuvir and Declatasvir and 340 bottles of the mixture of Sofosobuvir and Ledispar,” Dr Sharma asserted.

Besides, 377 coupons of Genotype testing and 1132 RNA Viral Load test kit were available at the hospital, he said.

“The treatment of hepatitis-C is very costly in the open market. While the medicine costs Rs 14,000 per month, the test is done for Rs 5000,” he said.

“We have also fixed every Thursday for hepatitis-C patients. Dr Sanjeev Grover, senior medical officer, has been appointed as the nodal officer,” he maintained.

Two medicines — Deferiprone and Deferasirox — were available at the hospital for the treatment of thalassaemic patients, the Civil Surgeon said.

As of now, 10 thalassaemic patients have been registered with the department, he said.

Scheme launched for pregnant women  

Karnal: The Health Department has started the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan in the Civil Hospital here. Amrinder Singh, OSD to the CM, inaugurated the programme under which pregnant women would be examined and high-risk pregnancies would be identified on ninth day of every month. The facility is being provided in 33 health institutions in the district. Ultrasound facility was provided free of cost to pregnant women, said Dr Yogesh Sharma, Civil Surgeon. tns