Pakistan launches its first Hepatitis Strategic Framework

Relying on weak epidemiological data due to the absence of a national hepatitis surveillance system, Pakistan’s 1st National Hepatitis Strategic Framework (NHSF) 2017-2021 was launched in Islamabad with a target to reduce chronic cases of Hepatitis B and C by 10 per cent, and new cases of Hepatitis B and C by 30 per cent. The target is the first milestone to be achieved by 2021 as part of the larger vision to eliminate viral hepatitis as a major public health threat by 2030.

The NHSF was launched by the Pakistan Health Research Council (PHRC), the Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the presence of the Director General of WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Regional Head of WHO Dr. Mahmoud Fikri, and the minister and secretary of health Saira Afzal and Muhammad Ayub Sheikh respectively, among others. Consultant gastroenterologist Dr. Huma Qureshi, former head of PHRC, shared the salient features of the NHSF.

One of the key objectives of the strategy is to obtain a yearly increase in the diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis B and C cases, and a yearly decrease in the number of new infections. How these objectives can be achieved in the absence of real-time data is a tough question to answer. Pakistan does not have a national hepatitis surveillance system, and as such, epidemiological data are weak. Federal and provincial data are often inadequate or not up to date. As such, the NHSF is based on limited epidemiological findings of the 2008 National Hepatitis Survey. The implementation of high-impact and targeted interventions will remain a far cry in the absence of more accurate data.