First-ever liver transplant centre in 2011: PM

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday announced the setting up of country’s first liver transplant centre in Islamabad, saying the facility will be completed by 2011.

Addressing the launching ceremony of a countrywide mass awareness campaign against hepatitis, the prime minister said that the establishment of the liver transplant centre was in line with government’s efforts to provide health facilities to people at their doorsteps.

The liver transplant centre will be setup at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), for which the prime minister announced a Rs 200 million one-time grant. The centre will be looked after under the Prime Minister’s Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis (PMPCH).

The prime minister said that the centre would facilitate the patients who had to travel abroad for treatment due to the unavailability of liver transplant centre in the country.

He said the common practice of unnecessary use of injections must be discouraged to control the spread of hepatitis. He said there was a need to educate the masses regarding the ill effects of irrational and unnecessary administration of injections, which was causing the spread of deadly diseases including Hepatitis B and C.

Gilani urged the officials to raise awareness among masses on adopting the approach that “prevention is better than treatment”.

He said the focus of PMPCH was going to shift from treatment to prevention. However, he said his government was aware of the miseries of those suffering from liver diseases and for whom the only hope was liver transplant.

He said the programme instilled a sense of urgency in the fight against hepatitis and was reflective of a firm resolve to counter the challenge posed by the disease, which was spreading fast.

He said though the thrust of the strategy under the new programme was on preventive services, a special provision was being made available to provide free of cost treatment to deserving and the poor who would otherwise have little hope of any treatment.